Harvey Weinstein faces more charges
LOS ANGELES >> Los Angeles County prosecutors on Friday charged disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein with six additional sexual assault counts involving two more alleged victims.
Weinstein, already serving time in a New York prison following his conviction in that state, now stands accused of raping and sexually assaulting five women in L.A. County from 2004 to 2013.
Prosecutors added three felony counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation. Weinstein now faces four counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one count of sexual penetration by use of force, involving five women for alleged crimes from 2004 to 2013.
“I am thankful to the first women who reported these crimes and whose courage have given strength to others to come forward,” Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement. “The willingness of these latest victims to testify against a powerful man gives us the additional evidence we need to build a compelling criminal case.”
The new charges include an incident that took place between September 2004 and September 2005 in which Weinstein allegedly raped a woman at a hotel in Beverly Hills. He is also is accused of raping another woman on two separate occasions in November 2009 and November 2010 at a hotel in Beverly Hills.
Weinstein was originally charged in L.A. County in January with sexually assaulting two women during separate incidents in 2013. The complaint was amended in April to add a charge that the defendant allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel in May 2010.