Los Angeles prosecutors indicted Harvey Weinstein on Monday on sex crime charges just hours after the former film producer appeared in a New York court for the start of his rape trial, which has become a focal point for the #MeToo movement.
Weinstein had been charged with sexual assault of two women in 2013, said Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement. He was charged with raping one woman and sexually assaulting the other.
“We believe the evidence will show that the defendant used his power and influence to gain access to his victims and then commit violent crimes against them,” Lacey said.
Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting two women in New York. He faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge, predatory sexual assault.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Additional reporting by Brendan Pierson, Maria Caspani and Gabriella Borter in New York and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Writing by Tom Hals; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
