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POLICE DETECTIVES IN New York City and London are taking a fresh look into sexual assault allegations against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein.
New York Police Department spokesman Peter Donald has said that investigators are trying to determine whether there were any additional complaints involving Weinstein, now embroiled in a sex abuse scandal. That includes reviewing police files to see if any women previously reported being assaulted or harassed by him.
So far, no filed complaints have been found, he said, other than one well-known case that prompted an investigation in 2015, but authorities are encouraging anyone with information on Weinstein to contact the department.
London police are also investigating an allegation of sexual assault involving Weinstein. London’s Metropolitan police force said it had received an allegation of sexual assault from the Merseyside force in northwest England.
Merseyside police say the allegation was made yesterday and concerns “an alleged sexual assault in the London area in the 1980s”.
String of sexual assault allegations
Some 30 women – including actresses Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow – told The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine in recent stories that Weinstein had sexually harassed or sexually assaulted them. Weinstein was fired on Sunday by The Weinstein Company, a studio he co-founded with his brother.
Detectives in the NYPD’s special victims unit were instructed to identify and speak with any potential victims, including the women who spoke about their encounters with Weinstein in a recent New Yorker article, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
In The New Yorker expose, a former actress, Lucia Evans, said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex in 2004 when she was a college student.
At least one other unnamed woman said she was raped by Weinstein, but the article did not disclose when it where it happened. A third woman, actress Asia Argento, told the magazine that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 1997 at a hotel in France.
Under New York law, making someone engage in oral sex by physical force or the threat of it is a first-degree criminal sexual act. There’s no legal time limit for bringing charges.
Denial
Weinstein, through a spokeswoman, has denied any nonconsensual sexual conduct with any women.
The film mogul reappeared briefly yesterday outside a Los Angeles home, telling the paparazzi he’s “not doing OK”, but he’s hoping for a “second chance”, according to a video posted by celebrity website TMZ.
He also told the photographers he needs to “get help” and “we all make mistakes”.
New York detectives already investigated Weinstein once, in 2015, when an Italian model said the studio executive grabbed her breasts and groped her. Detectives set up a sting where they recorded a conversation between the woman and Weinstein while he tried to persuade her to come into his hotel room.
“Why yesterday you touch my breast?” the 22-year-old asked on the recording, published by The New Yorker.
Weinstein, in conversation with Gutierrez, admits to groping her. Here’s the audio: https://t.co/zSQbK5NV0c pic.twitter.com/vmrrSUp43w
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) October 10, 2017
“Oh, please, I’m sorry, just come on in. I’m used to that. Come on. Please,” Weinstein responded.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr said there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the case. Vance said his office’s “best lawyers” examined the evidence before deciding, less than two weeks after the woman first made her allegations, to drop the investigation.
“I, like they, was very disturbed by the contents of the tape. It’s obviously sickening,” Vance said.
But at the end of the day we operate in a courtroom of law, not the court of public opinion. And our sex crime prosecutors made a determination that this was not going to be a provable case, and so the decision was made not to go forward.
Police investigated that allegation as a case of forcible touching, a misdemeanour with a two-year time limit for bringing charges. The statute of limitations has since expired.
The fallout from the numerous allegations against Weinstein continued today, with the leaders of the Cannes film festival expressing dismay at the accusations.
“These actions point to a pattern of behaviour that merits only the clearest and most unequivocal condemnation,” festival president Pierre Lescure and general delegate Thierry Fremaux wrote in a statement.
Hachette Book Group, one of the country’s top publishers, also announced today that it has “terminated” Weinstein Books.
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“Hollywood has the best moral compass” – Harvey Weinstein (2009), in defence of Roman Polanski.
@Tristan Rowntree: Impeach Weinstein!
Sure the Americans voted in a president thats no better than this guy!
@Colette Kearns: apples and oranges Colette. Totally unfair comparison to draw. Access Hollywood tape was just words these are actions.
@Colette Kearns: also Ireland almost elected David Norris President, lest we forget!
@Tristan Rowntree: he was eliminated in the 3rd round, so you can hardly say he was nearly elected.
@Karen Wellington: He was leading the polls before that letter got leaked, and thank God it did.
@Ewan Euphrenza: the difference is what each nation did once the damning information on the respective candidates came to light….
@Karen Wellington: yes Irish society where priest were allowed to rape children the length and breadth of the country and where parents send their own children to institutional homes (where abuse was rampant) are far superior to Americans.
@Tristan Rowntree: well now you’re just moving the goal post, are you saying the Ireland of today is 100% the same as the Ireland of 1977? We absolutely have problems in this country, but nothing compared to the shit-show that is the US/Trump. So you don’t keep making the mistake of thinking the endemic child abuse being perpetrated by the RCC is an exclusively Irish problem;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse_scandal_in_the_Catholic_archdiocese_of_Boston
I know it’s Wikipedia, but it’s the handiest way to get all the info in one place and you can use it as a jumping off point.
@newbie: fair enough, but this entire thread belongs in the bin and I regret my part in keeping it going. Weinstein is the topic / piece of shit in question, not Trump / Norris / RC Priests etc. and there’ll probably be more appropriate opportunities in the future to express disgust at whatever deviance they’ve come up with. This is just detracting from the discussion.
Is that the same Cannes Film Festival that had Roman Polanski as president of the festival jury in 1991?
@Chad Rockett: Yes – and an Oscar in 2002, several nominations and BAFTAs
@Fank Pulman: your beloved royal family awarded the guy a cbe on the insistence of Andrew.Should the worthless title be rescinded thus provoking Weinstein in to telling a few home truths about your beloved royal family.
Tick tock.
Oscars be around shortly. Sure Hollywood will give him standing ovation. After all isn’t that what happens. Roman Polanski comes to mind… Seems this as more to come. Hopefully now more women are encouraged to come forward .
Why do they all ignore the child rape crime of Ronan Polanski – and give him awards? Yet pillory this guy?
@Fank Pulman: he was investigate, charged and made a plea deal, which he fled. You should direct your anger at the European countries going above and beyond to protect him from justice.
@Karen Wellington: I think it’s reasonable to direct anger at anyone who supports a man who drugged and anally raped a 13 year old girl.
@Chad Rockett: when I posted that comment I was under the impression that he was referring to the police in the US, I completely agree you; Polanski is a vile waste of organs, peeling off his skin and dipping him in vat of heavily salted liquified fecal matter face first would be too good for him. And anyone sheltering him or defending his actions isn’t much better.
The glee of some commentators here are the same as when there is an ISIS attack. No sympathy for the victims just another reason to massage their sad egos.
@Deborah Behan: I feel sorry for the victims of this guy , people get hurt in life , this guy did a lot of hurtful things , hopefully the victims will come forward to put him away .
But what people are getting ”gleeful” about is that half of the so called liberal Hollywood elite who preach to the unwashed , would have known this guy was dirty , but kept up relationships to further their own careers .
So fu(k the hypocritical ”stars” , they can shove their double talk where the sun don’t shine .
Hollywood is a cesspool of sex abuse and paedophilia.
Did they sacrifice Weinstien to keep Vegas off the front page?
have your say