Police Building Case to Arrest Harvey Weinstein After Sexual Assault Claim
By AL BAKER, JODI KANTOR and WILLIAM NEUMANNOV. 3, 2017
The police in New York on Friday said that they were developing a strong criminal case against the producer Harvey Weinstein after an actress’s claim that he raped her seven years ago.
Speaking at a news conference at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan, officials in the Police Department said they were gathering evidence with an eye toward preparing a warrant to arrest Mr. Weinstein, whose representatives have said he is undergoing therapy outside New York.
The claims of the actress, Paz de la Huerta, have been a focus of investigators in the department’s Special Victims Division for several days, since Mr. Weinstein’s long history of allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault of women was detailed in reports by The New York Times and The New Yorker early last month. Those reports prompted a mountain of tips to the police in New York and London about other episodes.
If Mr. Weinstein had been in the city, and so much time had not passed, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce, said that his investigators would have sought to arrest him immediately. But with him out of the jurisdiction of the New York police, and with seven years having elapsed since the attacks are said to have taken place, the police will instead continue gathering evidence.
“We have an actual case going forward,” Chief Boyce said. “If this person was still in New York and it was recent we would go right away and make the arrest, no doubt. But we’re talking about a seven-year-old case. And we have to move forward gathering evidence.”
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-new-york-police.html?emc=edit_th_20171104&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284&_r=0