Harvey Weinstein arrives to surrender in sex assault probe
NEW YORK - AP
Harvey Weinstein turned himself in to police on May 25 to face the first criminal charges to be filed against him after months of sexual abuse allegations from scores of women that destroyed his career and set off a national reckoning known as the #MeToo movement.
Weinstein, 66, stepped from a black SUV wearing a blazer and carrying books under his arm, and lumbered into a Manhattan police station before a crowd of news cameras. He didn't respond to shouts of "Harvey!"
The exact charges against Weinstein still had not been made public early in the morning. Two law enforcement officials told the case will include allegations by Lucia Evans, an aspiring actress who has said the Hollywood mogul forced her to perform oral sex on him in his office. She was among the first women to speak out about the producer.
One official said it's likely the case also will include at least one other victim who has not come forward publicly.
Weinstein was expected to be charged at least with criminal sexual act, a crime that carries up to 25 years in prison, the officials said.
Weinstein's attorney, Benjamin Brafman, declined to comment when first contacted about the charges, but previously said in court paperwork that the allegations that Weinstein forced himself on women were "entirely without merit" and that he never knowingly broke the law.
Evans confirmed to The New Yorker that she was pressing charges. "At a certain point, you have to think about the greater good of humanity, of womankind," she told the magazine.
Evans told The New Yorker in a story published in October that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex during a daytime meeting at his New York office in 2004, the summer before her senior year at Middlebury College.
