PERV HARV’S 3RD CHARGE
COULD FACE 10 TO LIFE FOR 2006 SEX ATTACK
Pariah producer Harvey Weinstein was hit with additional counts of sexual assault on Monday — including charges relating to a third, new victim that could cast him in the role of inmate for life.
Court papers allege Weinstein performed oral sex on the unidentified woman against her will on July 10, 2006, but the superseding indictment did not disclose the specific location of the alleged crime or additional details.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said a grand jury voted to charge Weinstein with an additional count of criminal sex act in the first degree.
The grand jury also indicted Weinstein on two counts of predatory sexual assault, a Class A felony that carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison, Vance said.
Weinstein, 66, was previously charged with forcing actress Lucia Evans to perform oral sex on him in 2004 and with raping an unidentified woman at a Midtown hotel in 2013.
Vance said in a statement that his office's probe is still underway and that the charges filed Monday are “some of the most serious sexual offenses that exist under New York's penal law.”
“This indictment is the result of the extraordinary courage exhibited by the survivors who have come forward,” he said.
Weinstein's attorney, Ben Brafman, said his client will fight the new charges.
“Mr. Weinstein maintains that all of these allegations are false, and he expects to be fully vindicated,” Brafman said in a statement Monday. “Furthermore, to charge Mr. Weinstein as a predator when the interactions were consensual is simply not justified.”
An arraignment on the new indictment was set for July 9. Weinstein is charged with predatory sexual assault under the theory that he committed serious sex assaults and additional similar acts “against one or more additional persons.” It doubles the minimum prison time he faces on just one of the three alleged assaults.
New York attorney Mark Cohen said the prosecution may be going for a course-of-conduct theory because “obviously, credibility comes from numbers.”
“You're essentially going in front of a jury saying this guy, he's out there. He's a serial offender. He does this to multiple victims and you have the statue drawn that way,” Cohen said. “The statute makes the argument for you.”
Weinstein — a longtime Hollywood heavyweight whose alleged behavior against scores of women opened the floodgates of the #MeToo movement last year — surrendered to authorities in Manhattan on May 25 to face rape and criminal sex act charges. He was freed on $1 million bail after a short stint in custody, a perp walk and an appearance before a judge in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Prosecutors quickly filed an indictment, and he pleaded not guilty on June 5 to his first round of charges.
The minimum he faced prior to Monday was five years in prison.
Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct and harassment by at least 80 women over the past year. His most high-profile accusers include the actresses Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino, Rose McGowan, Lupita Nyong'o, Annabella Sciorra and Gwyneth Paltrow.