Weinstein: Part of case against mogul dropped
‘Case should be dismissed’
PROSECUTORS in New York yesterday dropped part of the case against Harvey Weinstein after new evidence suggested the relationship with the victim was consensual.
The Manhattan District Attorney said it was dropping the count relating to Lucia Evans, who alleged Weinstein forced her to perform a sex act on him in 2004.
An unsealed letter from the prosecutors suggests that Ms Evans admitted to a friend that she performed a sex act on the movie producer in exchange for a job in acting and flashed her breasts at him.
Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said they were moving ‘full steam ahead’ with the other five charges which include rape and could see Weinstein jailed for life.
Weinstein’s lawyer Ben Brafman said the case should be dismissed because the ‘integrity of these proceedings has been compromised’.
Ms Evans’ lawyer Carrie Goldberg hit back at the District Attorney for its decision to ‘abandon’ her client.
The development a year after reports outed Weinstein as an alleged serial abuser and began the MeToo movement.
As a result he was forced out of his movie company, The Weinstein Co, his marriage collapsed and his $300million empire crumbled.
Ms Evans, now a marketing executive, was among the women who went on the record in a New Yorker article to claim that Weinstein, 66, attacked her when she was a 21-year-old student and aspiring actress.
The Manhattan Criminal Court unsealed a letter sent from Ms Illuzzi-Orbon to Mr Brafman dated September 12 which explained why they were dropping count six.
In the letter, the witness - who has not been named – said they were there when Ms Evans first met Weinstein at a Manhattan bar in 2004.
The witness said that Weinstein ‘offered to give them cash if they exposed their breasts to him’.
The witness refused but later that night Ms Evans supposedly admitted she had shown her breasts to Weinstein in the hallway of the bar.
Later that summer or the summer after, the witness said that Ms Evans said she had gone to Weinstein’s office where he said he would arrange an acting job if she agreed to perform oral sex upon him.
According to the witness’s letter, the complainant said she agreed to perform the sexual act.
Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex and is free on $1million bail.