Harvey Weinstein sits in prison near Buffalo, having been sentenced in New York earlier this year to 23 years for rape and sexual assault. Now, the disgraced mogul will have an opportunity to leave his cell: to face even more charges in Los Angeles.
L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey has added six more charges to Weinstein’s felony complaint, claiming he raped and sexually assaulted two women in Beverly Hills between 2004 and 2010.
Altogether, Weinstein is facing 11 counts in L.A. — including rape, sexual penetration by use of force, sexual battery and forcible oral copulation — involving five women. If he’s convicted on all counts, the maximum sentence is life in prison.
Lacey first filed four charges against Weinstein in January, as his New York trial was commencing, accusing him of raping and sexually assaulting two women in 2013.
She added a fifth count in April, charging Weinstein with sexual battery in an incident involving another woman in 2010.
An extradition hearing is scheduled for Dec. 11.
More than 100 women, many of them young actresses who believed Weinstein was interested in their careers, have said they were sexually assaulted or raped by Weinstein following the publication of stories about him in The New Yorker and The New York Times three years ago.
“I am thankful to the first women who reported these crimes and whose courage have given strength to others to come forward,” Lacey said in a statement today. “The willingness of these latest victims to testify against a powerful man gives us the additional evidence we need to build a compelling criminal case.”
Weinstein’s spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, told Variety that Weinstein’s lawyers are looking into the new charges.
“Harvey Weinstein has always maintained that every one of his physical encounters throughout his entire life have been consensual. That hasn’t changed,” Engelmayer said. “At this moment we cannot comment on the additional charges until we learn more about them.”
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