Harvey Weinstein raped me, actress tells LAPD. Investigation launched
Oct 19, 2017 By Richard Winton and Victoria KimContact Reporters - Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles police are investigating new allegations against Harvey Weinstein after an Italian model-actress reported that the producer sexually assaulted her in 2013. (Al Powers / Associated Press)
Richard Winton and Victoria KimContact Reporters
An Italian model-actress met with Los Angeles police detectives for more than two hours Thursday morning, providing a detailed account of new allegations that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her at a hotel in 2013.
She is the sixth woman to accuse Weinstein of rape or forcible sex acts. Los Angeles police Capt. Billy Hayes confirmed that the department has launched an investigation into the matter.
It is the first case related to Weinstein to be reported in Southern California. New York police already have two active sex crime probes and London’s Metropolitan Police is investigating allegations made by three women.
The new allegation could be legally troubling for Weinstein because it falls within the 10-year statute of limitations for the crime that existed at the time of the alleged incident, legal experts say.
It could “open the door to a prosecution if the evidence exists,” said defense attorney Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County sex crimes prosecutor. Until now, most of the allegations against Weinstein that could lead to criminal charges concerned incidents that are more than a decade old.
Weinstein has “unequivocally denied” allegations of non-consensual sex, according to his representative, Sallie Hofmeister. On the latest allegation, she said: "I can't respond to some anonymous complaint."
The 38-year-old woman, who has asked not to be named because she is fearful of retaliation and concerned about protecting her children’s privacy, first contacted police on Tuesday, through her attorney, David Ring of the law firm Taylor Ring. Two detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division’s rape special section took her statement on Thursday.
She told the Los Angeles Times that the incident occurred at Mr. C Beverly Hills hotel after she attended the 8th annual Los Angeles, Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest in February 2013. She had previously met Weinstein once, briefly, in Rome after being introduced by an acquaintance. At that time, he invited her up to his hotel room, but she said she declined. She said they spoke briefly at the film festival, but he didn’t appear to recall meeting her before.
Later, he showed up “without warning” after midnight in the lobby of her hotel, which she said surprised her because she didn’t tell him where she was staying. He asked to come up to her room. She said she told him no and offered to meet him downstairs, but soon, he was knocking on her door.
“He ... bullied his way into my hotel room, saying, ‘I’m not going to [have sex with] you, I just want to talk,’” the woman told The Times. “Once inside, he asked me questions about myself, but soon became very aggressive and demanding and kept asking to see me naked.”
She said Weinstein repeatedly bragged about his power and influence and told her not to fight him. She tried to show him pictures of her children and her mother, who was undergoing chemotherapy at the time, as she cried and begged him to go away, she said.
“He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do,” she said. “He then dragged me to the bathroom and forcibly raped me.”
When he left, she said he told her she was very beautiful, and that she could work in Hollywood.
“He acted like nothing happened,” the woman said. “I barely knew this man. It was the most demeaning thing ever done to me by far. It sickens me still. … He made me feel like an object, like nothing, with all his power.”
After the incident, he invited her to parties at his house. She did not attend.
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