According to reports, the Los Angeles County Prosecutor’s Office has announced Friday that former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been charged with an additional six sexual assault cases. With the new charges, Weinstein is now facing a total of 11 counts of sexual assault in Los Angeles County involving five women
“Weinstein now faces a total of four charges for rape and four for forced oral copulation, two for sexual assault with restraint, and one for sexual penetration through the use of force in relation to five victims of crimes ranging from 2004 to 2013,” summarized the Angelina Prosecutor’s Office.
The now 68-year-old dishonarable media mogul has been currently serving a 23-year sentence in New York after being convicted of committing a first degree criminal sex act with one woman. In addition, being charged of the rape of another woman, which was classified in the third degree. He’s being held in a maximum-security prison in Alden, New York.
“I am grateful to the first woman who reported these crimes and whose courage has given strength to the rest to take a step forward,” said the Los Angeles County Prosecutor, Jackie Lacey, when announcing the expansion in a statement of the charges against Weinstein.
One of the new accusations corresponds to a woman, who was allegedly raped by Weinstein between Sept. 2004 and Sept. 2005 in a hotel in Beverly Hills. Weinstein was also accused of having allegedly raped another woman on two different occasions, Nov. 2009 and Nov. 2010, also in Beverly Hills at a hotel.
Per reports, all of Weinstein’s previous accusations have been denied by him. Moreover, the former producer’s spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, states that he personally is electing to forgo comments regarding the matter, until he gets further information.
“Harvey Weinstein has always maintained that every one of his physical encounters throughout his entire life have been consensual,” Engelmayer stated. “That hasn’t changed.”
For these three newly brought violations, Weinstein will have to answer for six crimes: three for rape and another three for forced oral copulation.
If convicted of all crimes, the producer, who is already behind bars, could receive a sentence of up to 140 years in prison, which would be added to the 23 that the New York judge has already ruled for rape and sexual assault.
Weinstein’s conviction in New York marked a great triumph for the #MeToo movement in its feminist fight against sexual abuse and assault. The Los Angeles County Prosecutor’s Office asked New York authorities in July that Weinstein be transferred to trial in California for all these accusations.
“We believe that the evidence will show that the defendant used his power and influence to gain access to his victims and then commit violent crimes against them,” Lacey said at a news conference in January when he unveiled the first Los Angeles allegations. against the producer.
