Weinstein charged with rape, sex felony
Flinching when he heard himself described as a man who used power to prey on women, Harvey Weinstein was charged Friday with rape and another sex felony in the first prosecution to result from the wave of allegations against him that sparked a national reckoning over sexual misconduct.
Seven months after the accusations destroyed his career and catalyzed the #MeToo movement, the once-powerhouse movie producer turned himself in to face the charges. They stem from encounters with two of the dozens of women who have accused him of sexual misdeeds ranging from harassment to assault.
“This defendant used his position, money and power to lure young women into situations where he was able to violate them sexually,” Manhattan Assistant Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said in court. Weinstein, who had been staring grimly ahead, grimaced and raised his eyebrows as he heard her words.
Weinstein has consistently denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Friday that he would fight to get the charges dismissed, saying they’re factually unsupported and constitutionally flawed.
And he began to take aim at the accusations and accusers, noting that the alleged attacks weren’t reported to police when they happened and suggesting potential jurors wouldn’t believe the women.
“Assuming,” he added, “we get 12 fair people who are not consumed by the movement that seems to have overtaken this case.”
Asked about the raft of allegations that made Weinstein a symbol of sexual misconduct, Brafman said: “Bad behaviour is not on trial in this case.”
“Mr. Weinstein did not invent the casting couch in Hollywood, and to the extent that there is bad behaviour in that industry, that is not what this is about,” the attorney said.
Weinstein was released on US$1 million bail, with constant electronic monitoring and a ban on travelling beyond New York and Connecticut. He left through a courthouse back door less than three hours after his arrest.
By agreeing to surrender, he had sped through the city’s criminal justice system, where most people accused of rape spend hours in police stations and holding cells before going to court, and he arrived with a $1 million cashier’s check for his pre-negotiated bail.
He has until Wednesday to decide whether to testify before a grand jury.
As he turned himself in, Weinstein, 66, found himself surrounded by lights and cameras in a spectacle he couldn’t control.
“You sorry, Harvey?” came a shout from a throng of media as the once powerful movie mogul walked into a lower Manhattan courthouse in handcuffs, his head bowed. Asked “what can you say?” he mildly shook his head and softly said “no.”
Weinstein was charged with rape and a criminal sex act, both felonies.
Weinstein lumbered into a police station early Friday wearing a blazer and carrying books including “Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution,” about the Broadway musical duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and “Elia Kazan,” about the famed film director.
The rape charge relates to a woman who was not identified and does not appear to be among the people who have told their stories publicly. A court complaint says Weinstein confined her in a Manhattan hotel room and raped her in 2013.
The criminal sex act charge stems from a 2004 encounter between Weinstein and Lucia Evans, a then-aspiring actress who has said the Hollywood mogul forced her to perform oral sex on him during a daytime meeting in his office in 2004. She was among the first women to speak out about the producer.
“This is an emotional moment. We are relieved and grateful that justice is coming, but we also mourn the cases where it didn’t,” her lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, said in a statement to The Associated Press.