Prosecutors drop part of Weinstein case
NEW YORK — Prosecutors in New York City abandoned part of their sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein on Thursday after evidence surfaced that a police detective coached a witness to stay silent about evidence that cast doubt on the account of one of his earliest accusers.
With Weinstein looking on, a judge agreed to dismiss the lone charge in the case related to Lucia Evans, who helped spark the #MeToo movement when she told The New Yorker in an expose published a year ago Wednesday that the film producer had forced her to perform oral sex in his office in 2004 when she was a college student and aspiring actress.
Weinstein, 66, still faces charges over allegations that he raped an unidentified woman in his hotel room in 2013 and performed a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006. He has pleaded not guilty and denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi Orbon insisted the rest of the case is strong and said the district attorney’s office was looking into the possibility of bringing additional charges.
“In short, your honor, we are moving full steam ahead,” she said.
Evans’ lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, furiously said outside court that her client had been abandoned by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. for no reason.
“Let me be clear: the decision to throw away my client’s sexual assault charges says nothing about Weinstein’s guilt or innocence. Nor does it reflect on Lucia’s consistent allegation that she was sexually assaulted with force by Harvey Weinstein,” she said in a written statement. “It only speaks volumes about the Manhattan DA’s office and its mishandling of my client’s case.”
Prosecutors said in a letter unsealed Thursday they learned weeks ago that a woman who was with Evans the night she met Weinstein at a restaurant had given a police detective a contradictory account of what happened, but that the detective had urged her to keep quiet, telling her “less is more.”
The woman, prosecutors said, told the detective in February that Weinstein had offered them money to flash their breasts during the restaurant encounter.