A grand jury indicted Harvey Weinstein on Wednesday on two counts of rape and a single count of criminal sexual acts.
The charges match the ones filed in a criminal complaint last Friday by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
“This indictment brings the defendant another step closer to accountability for the crimes of violence with which he is now charged,” D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr., said in a statement. “Our office will try this case not in the press, but in the courtroom where it belongs. The defendant’s recent assault on the integrity of the survivors and the legal process is predictable. We are confident that when the jury hears the evidence, it will reject these attacks out of hand.”
Weinstein’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, announced earlier on Wednesday that his client would not testify before the grand jury. In a statement to the press, Brafman complained that information had been withheld which would assist in Weinstein’s defense.
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Following the indictment, Brafman said that it “does not add anything to the case we did not already know.”
“The announcement of Mr. Weinstein’s indictment does not come as a surprise,” he said. “We remind everyone that an Indictment is merely a formal accusation. Mr Weinstein intends to enter a plea of Not Guilty and vigorously defend against these unsupported allegations that he strongly denies. We will soon formally move to dismiss the indictment and if this case actually proceeds to trial, we expect Mr. Weinstein to be acquitted.”
Weinstein is accused of forcing Lucia Evans to perform oral sex on him at his Tribeca office in 2004. A second woman, who has not been identified, alleges that Weinstein raped her at a hotel in 2013. Brafman has said that Weinstein was in a 10-year consensual relationship with the second woman, which continued after the alleged rape.
Weinstein faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
Harvey Weinstein Indictment by gmaddaus on Scribd
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