NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) Harvey Weinstein has been indicted on rape and criminal sex act charges by a New York grand jury.
Weinstein was charged Friday with rape and criminal sex act charges involving two women in New York. Dozens more have accused him of various misconduct ranging from harassment to assault.
The announcement came hours after Weinstein’s attorney said his client would decline to testify in front of the grand jury because there wasn’t enough time to prepare him and that political pressure made an indictment inevitable, according to the Associated Press. A spokesman for the former movie mogul said Weinstein only learned of the charges and the names of the accusers after he turned himself in on Friday. The statement added that a request for more time was denied.
“Finally, Mr. Weinstein’s attorneys noted that regardless of how compelling Mr. Weinstein’s personal testimony might be, an indictment was inevitable due to the unfair political pressure being placed on (Manhattan District Attorney) Cy Vance to secure a conviction of Mr. Weinstein,” the statement said.
One of the accusers, former actress Lucia Evans, has gone public with her story, saying Weinstein forced her to give him oral sex in his office in 2004.
Yesterday, Weinstein attorney Benjamin Brafman told the press that Weinstein had a decade-long consensual relationship with one of the accusers that continued after an alleged attack in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013. Brafman said he wouldn’t divulge the woman’s identity but told reporters she was “someone with whom he has had a 10-year consensual, sexual relationship, both before the alleged incident and after the alleged incident.”
Brafman called the allegation “serious on its face, but when you drill down on it, it is, in my opinion, also absurd,” according to the AP.
