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Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to rape, sexual assault charges
Harvey Weinstein on Tuesday plead not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault made against him after an eight-month investigation that was conducted during the #MeToo movement.
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Tuesday to rape and criminal sex act charges in New York.
The hearing in Manhattan comes after a grand jury indicted the former movie mogul last week on charges involving two women.
One alleged victim, who has not been identified publicly, told investigators that Weinstein cornered her in a hotel room and raped her. The other accuser, former actress Lucia Evans, has gone public with her account of Weinstein forcing her to perform oral sex at his office in 2004. The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual assaults unless they come forward publicly.
Dozens more women have accused him of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault.
The 66-year-old Weinstein has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, has challenged the credibility of his alleged victims and says his client is confident he is going to clear his name.
Brafman called the rape allegation “absurd,” saying that the accuser and Weinstein had a decadelong, consensual sexual relationship that continued after the alleged 2013 attack.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. has said it was predictable that Weinstein’s camp would attack the integrity of the women and of the legal system.
Vance, a Democrat, came under public pressure from women’s groups to prosecute Weinstein after declining to do so in 2015, when an Italian model went to police to say Weinstein had groped her during a meeting.
Police set up a sting in which the woman recorded herself confronting Weinstein and him apologizing for his conduct. But Vance decided there was not enough evidence to bring charges.
Weinstein is out on $1 million bail.
Last week three actors filed a new lawsuit against Weinstein alleging sexual assault. They urged other victims to come forward and join the complaint.
Melissa Thompson, one of the women filing the class action lawsuit, said she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein during a 2011 meeting to discuss a new marketing tool.
Following public revelations last year about his predatory behaviour, Thompson said she was referred to Brafman and another attorney at his firm, Alex Spiro.
“Thompson was led to believe that Brafman and Spiro were representing victims against Weinstein,” said the law firm representing her, Hagens Berman.
“Deceptive tactics were used to entice her to turn over her visual and audio evidence of Weinstein’s conduct (which she did),” it said.
“Melissa did not learn that Brafman was actually then or would later be Weinstein’s lead criminal defence attorney until after turning over the video as evidence.”
