Harvey Weinstein to turn himself in, face rape charges

JTA

(JTA) — Harvey Weinstein agreed to turn himself in to policed custody where he is to be charged with rape and sexual abuse charges in two women, law enforcement officials said.

The disgraced movie mogul, who is Jewish, is expected to surrender to the police in Manhattan on Friday on charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex on him, the officials told The New York Times Thursday.

The charges follow an avalanche of accusations against him that following their publication in October led women around the world, some of them famous and many of them not, to come forward with accounts of being sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men.

Weinstein, who has denied engaging in nonconsensual sex, will be charged with first-degree rape and third-degree rape in one case, and with first-degree criminal sex act in another, law enforcement officials told the Times, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Weinstein is currently trying to obtain personal and business records kept by The Weinstein Co. – a firm which he helped set up but which dismissed him in October following the accounts of his alleged sexual exploitation of women.

The company has declared bankruptcy and its assets have been put on sale. Weinstein, who is suing to obtain documents and files belonging to the company, said the information in them will help him clear his name.