Harvey Weinstein Indicted on Rape Charges

Hours after Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said the producer would not testify before a grand jury, the same panel has now indicted the disgraced Oscar winner on two sets of rape charges and a sex crime charge.

“A Grand Jury has voted to indict Harvey Weinstein on charges of Rape in the First and Third Degrees, and Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said this afternoon. (Read the two-page indictment here, but be warned there are graphic descriptions of sex acts in it.) . . .

On Friday, Weinstein did the perp walk after surrendering himself to the NYPD. He was arrested and charged with two counts of rape (one involving force) as well as a criminal sexual act in the first degree, for alleged assaults against two women that occurred in 2013 and 2004 — the same charges the indictment just slapped down.

While the D.A. has been pecked at for moving too slow on the material the NYPD handed over against the much accused Weinstein, the grand jury has quietly been sitting for several weeks and issuing subpoenas. That process has now been unleashed.

“This indictment brings the defendant another step closer to accountability for the crimes of violence with which he is now charged,” Vance said of the latest legal move against the producer. “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.” (Read more from “Harvey Weinstein Indicted on Rape Charges” HERE)

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