There are now more than 80 women alleging sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer and owner of Miramax. While most of these accusations seem to be credible, so far they fall short of having real implications without further evidence. But, Weinstein hasn’t escaped justice yet.
The New York Police Department says they have a real case against him, not just a series of accusations. They released a statement last week in which they said they have actionable evidence against him.
A spokesperson for the NYPD said in a press conference that if Weinstein was still in New York, they would move to make an arrest without delay.
Aaron Fuller, an attorney representing Boardwalk Empire star Paz de la Huerta, says his client was raped on two separate occasions by Weinstein. The instances which are said to have happened in 2010 at la Huerta’s New York City apartment would be well within the time limits of any statute of limitations, and Weinstein would not be protected on those grounds. The two separate incidents happened about one month apart.
La Huerta gave an interview to Vanity Fair in which she said, “It was disgusting. He is like a pig. He raped me.”
Fuller said that he believes his client’s case against Weinstein is the strongest to come to light to date. He told ABC News, “At this point, there’s a considerable amount of evidence to support all of the stories that are being told.”
Fuller’s statement to ABC suggests that there may be a great deal of overlap between la Huerta’s case and the many other cases that are being brought before the public eye. If that’s true, Weinstein could be found guilty in more of the many cases in which he may become a defendant.
A senior sex crime prosecutor from the NYPD has been assigned to this case, but is unavailable for comment. At this point, the NYPD’s job is to do their best to corroborate the victim’s statement to get the case beyond the threshold of probable cause and up to the level of being beyond reasonable doubt.
It has recently come to light that Weinstein has cases against him not only in LA and New York, but also in London as well. Paz de la Huerta brings the total number of women placing blame for sexual abuse at the feet of Harvey Weinstein to 87.
Of course, while the Weinstein sexual assault story is one of the biggest tales of rape, abuse, and sexual misconduct to come before the public eye, there are many more in the entertainment indsutry. There’s the 39-year-old case of Roman Polansky, the French-Polish director who has been a fugitive from justice since he was charged with raping a teenager in 1978. There’s the case of Woody Allen, who was unofficially accused of sexual misconduct with his underage stepdaughter, who he later married.
In recent years, actor/comedian Bill Cosby came under fire for similar accusations. In Cosby’s case, there was a large amount of pressure to convict him before the evidence was in. Sadly, it was later proven that he did, in fact, drug and rape many women throughout his long career.
Most recently, we have stories of abuse from a slew of other major Hollywood figures like Kevin Spacey and Ben Affleck. Both of these men have offered petty and disingenuous excuses and deflections for their behavior. Spacey thought he could get the spotlight off of him by coming out as gay. Affleck says he ‘recognizes there’s a problem with sexual misconduct in Hollywood and wants to be part of the solution.’
But the real disingenuity comes from the Hollywood community as a whole, which has long known about the problem of sexual abuse in Tinsel Town. There have been many jokes about it at award shows, in comedy programs, and in off-camera comments. But until now, no one seemed to care.
The saddest of these cases is that of former child actors Elijah Wood, Corey Feldman, and Corey Haim – all of which have said that they were sexually abused as children, that they were not alone as victims, and that they had reason to believe the problem of pedophilia in Hollywood is pervasive.
There can be no doubt, a dark and foul underbelly is being exposed in Hollywood, and it’s coming to the point where many Americans are boycotting the movies.
~ Liberty Planet
