Harvey Weinstein Is Arrested on Rape Charges in New York
Harvey Weinstein was arrested by New York City detectives on Friday on charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex on him.
Around 7:30 a.m., he walked glumly into a police station house in Lower Manhattan, flanked by several detectives. Toting three large books under his right arm, he looked up without saying a word as a crush of reporters and onlookers yelled, “Harvey!”
With camera shutters clicking closed and reporters shouting questions, the scene was a mirror image of the red carpets where Mr. Weinstein presided for decades as a movie mogul and king of Hollywood. But after years of harnessing his wealth and his influence in the movie industry to enforce a code of silence around his predatory behavior, and after withstanding an investigation into groping allegations only three years ago, Mr. Weinstein faced the first criminal charges in a monthslong investigation into his conduct.
He was processed at the station house, the First Police Precinct, and will be arraigned in court on charges of first-degree rape and third-degree rape in one case, and first-degree criminal sex act in another, law enforcement officials said.
The criminal sex act charge stems from an encounter with Lucia Evans, who told The New Yorker and then investigators from the Manhattan district attorney’s office that Mr. Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him during what she expected would be a casting meeting at the Miramax office in TriBeCa.
The victim in the rape case has not been publicly identified. Mr. Weinstein has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting movie stars and employees of his former namesake company over the course of decades and then paying them or coercing them to stay silent.
Mr. Weinstein’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, declined to comment on Thursday. In the past, he has said that Mr. Weinstein denies any allegations of “nonconsensual sex.”
As part of a bail package negotiated in advance, Mr. Weinstein will put up $1 million in cash and will agree to wear a monitoring device. His travel will be restricted and he will surrender his passport.
For years, Mr. Weinstein was the subject of rumors in media and entertainment circles, but he began facing official inquiries in New York, Los Angeles and London after revelations in The New York Times and The New Yorker.
Prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., conducted dozens of interviews in New York and elsewhere and issued hundreds of subpoenas, and their inquiry is not over. An investigative grand jury, still convened, will look into other sexual assault allegations against Mr. Weinstein as well as possible financial crimes relating to how he paid women to stay silent, people familiar with the proceedings said. Among other things, the grand jury is delving into whether Mr. Weinstein used employees of his former production company to identify women for him to assault, to set up meetings with the women or to discredit them if they complained.
Three years ago, the Manhattan district attorney’s office decided not to prosecute Mr. Weinstein after an Italian model, Ambra Battilana, accused him of groping her breasts during a meeting in his office.
In the recent inquiry, detectives traveled to the United Kingdom and Canada to interview witnesses and investigators were in Los Angeles as recently as late April and early May, several people briefed on the matter have said. Prosecutors have also combed through Mr. Weinstein’s financial records in an effort to uncover any possible improprieties, several people have said.
Related Coverage
The Major Moments of Harvey Weinstein’s Undoing
Harvey Weinstein Will Be Charged With Rape in New York, Officials Say
Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades
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