By Canadian Press

Harvey Weinstein charged with sex crime against a 3rd woman

Jul 2, 2018 | 10:00 AM

NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein was charged Monday with a sex crime against a third woman, as New York prosecutors continue building cases against the former Hollywood studio boss whose downfall ushered in the #MeToo movement.

Manhattan’s district attorney announced the charges in an updated indictment, saying Weinstein performed a forcible sex act on the woman in 2006.

“A Manhattan grand jury has now indicted Harvey Weinstein on some of the most serious sexual offences that exist under New York’s penal law,” District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement. “Our investigation continues. If you are a survivor of the predatory abuse with which Mr. Weinstein is charged, there is still time to pursue justice.”

Vance said Weinstein was charged with another count of criminal sexual act and two counts of predatory sexual assault. The latter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Weinstein is scheduled for arraignment on the new charges July 9. A lawyer for Weinstein said the 66-year-old former movie mogul will plead not guilty.

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“Mr. Weinstein maintains that all of these allegations are false and he expects to be fully vindicated,” lawyer Ben Brafman said.

A grand jury previously indicted Weinstein on charges involving two women. One of the alleged victims in the criminal case, who has not been identified publicly, told investigators that Weinstein cornered her in a hotel room and raped her in 2013. The other accuser, former actress Lucia Evans, has gone public with her account of Weinstein forcing her to perform oral sex at his office in 2004.

The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual assaults unless they come forward publicly.

More than 75 women have accused Weinstein of wrongdoing. Several actresses and models accused him of criminal sexual assaults, including film actress Rose McGowan, who said Weinstein raped her in 1997 in Utah, “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra, who said he raped her in her New York apartment in 1992, and the Norwegian actress Natassia Malthe, who said he attacked her in a London hotel room in 2008.

The New York Times and The New Yorker jointly won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Weinstein, which toppled a once untouchable star maker and helped prod women in other industries from technology to academia to factory work to tell their stories of sexual harassment by powerful men.

Mimi Haleyi, a former Weinstein Co. production assistant, made allegations against Weinstein last October that align with the charges in the updated indictment.

Haleyi said Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006 in what appeared to be a child’s bedroom in his Manhattan apartment. Neither the district attorney’s office nor Haleyi’s attorney, Gloria Allred, would confirm that Haleyi is the accuser in the new charges.

New York City police detectives said in early November that they were investigating allegations by another Weinstein accuser, “Boardwalk Empire” actress Paz de la Huerta, who told police in October that he raped her twice in 2010.

Weinstein has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex, with his attorney challenging the credibility of his alleged victims.

Karen Matthews, The Associated Press