Harvey Weinstein Pleads Not Guilty to Multiple Charges of Rape, Sexual Assault

The disgraced producer has pled not guily to charges stemming from two of his alleged victims. This is the first of what could be several cases against the former Hollywood giant.

Harvey Weinstein has pled not guilty to multiple charges of rape and sexual misconduct, according to Variety.

The disgraced movie producer was first indicted on multiple rape charges at the end of May, before being met with an additional class-action lawsuit from three women with allegations ranging from sexual misconduct and assault to rape.

Weinstein’s non-guilty plea is in response to charges involving two of his many alleged victims. One of the victims, Lucia Evans, claims Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex in 2004 at his Tribeca office. The other unnamed victim accused Weinstein of raping her in a Manhattan hotel room back in 2013.

Weinstein arrived at the Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday morning to deliver his plea. According to Variety, the courtroom and the area outside the courthouse were packed with people attempting to witness him enter a plea. Famous feminist attorney Gloria Allred was among those who attended the arraignment.

The fallen Hollywood mogul is currently out on a $1 million bail agreement, which comes complete with a GPS-enabled monitoring device. This is only the first of what could be many cases to come against Weinstein, who has been accused by more than 100 women of various forms of sexual misconduct, from harassment to rape.

His case, following Bill Cosby’s guilty verdict in April, is the second high-profile court case to come after the viral spread of the #MeToo movement. It was Weinstein’s decades-long history of sexual abuse, uncovered by the New York Times and New Yorker, that launched a movement exposing other alleged serial abusers in entertainment, including Russell Simmons, Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K.Mario Batali, and many others.  

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