Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Monday to a trio of new criminal sexual assault charges. As the disgraced Hollywood mogul maintains his innocence, the total number of charges Weinstein faces now stands at six –and that number could soon grow.
"If there's more, we will deal with them when they come," Weinstein's attorney Benjamin Brafman said Monday in response to a question about the possibility of more charges.
Back in June, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to three charges in cases casing concerning two women, which involve forcible sex acts the former producer allegedly committed in 2004 and 2013.
Added to the list last week was one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree, plus two counts of felony predatory sexual assault, according to a news release from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. The latter is "a class A-II felony, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment."
“A Manhattan Grand Jury has now indicted Harvey Weinstein on some of the most serious sexual offenses that exist under New York’s Penal Law,” said District Attorney Vance at the time. “This indictment is the result of the extraordinary courage exhibited by the survivors who have come forward. 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.”
Weinstein left the courthouse Monday without providing a statement to the press, but Brafman proclaimed his client’s innocence.
"Today was a formality," the attorney claimed. "Mr. Weinstein is not a predator. He is not a rapist. And I believe that, when this case is over, we will ultimately see him be exonerated."
Prosecutors reportedly devoted 20 minutes Monday in court to an attempt to have the judge place Weinstein, who resides in Connecticut, under house arrest in New York City. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke ultimately made no changes to Weinstein's bail agreement, according to Variety.
Since October 2017, more than 80 women have come forward with allegations against Weinstein. Probes of allegations concerning the producer have also been confirmed in Los Angeles and London.
The allegations led board members of the Weinstein Company to fire its namesake producer, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Weinstein to expel him from its ranks.
Only 13 out of 1,000 cases of sexual assault get referred to a prosecutor, according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN). Seven out of those 1,000 then receive a felony conviction. Rape cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute for a number of reasons, including a lack of witness evidence of the crime and jurors' own preconceived notions of what constitutes rape.
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