The Manhattan district attorney on Thursday dropped what was formally considered a key aspect of the criminal investigation into disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
The judge dropped allegations made by former Weinstein accuser Lucia Evans, according to a new report by The Hollywood Reporter, almost exactly a year after her story was made public by a bombshell expose in The New Yorker.
The incident reportedly took place in 2004. (RELATED: Federal Prosecutors Launch Investigation Into Harvey Weinstein For Disturbing Reason)
Her story reads, in part:
‘He forced me to perform oral sex on him.’ As she objected, Weinstein took his penis out of his pants and pulled her head down onto it. ‘I said, over and over, ‘I don’t want to do this, stop, don’t,’ she recalled. ‘I tried to get away, but maybe I didn’t try hard enough. I didn’t want to kick him or fight him.’ In the end, she said, ‘he’s a big guy. He overpowered me.’ She added, ‘I just sort of gave up. That’s the most horrible part of it, and that’s why he’s been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like it’s their fault.”
Weinstein’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, believes Evans lied to a grand jury about the incident and asked the judge to drop the case.
And the judge agreed to do just that. Weinstein was present to hear the development in court. (RELATED: Is Sharia Law The Answer To Preventing More Harvey Weinsteins?)
He is still being investigated for allegedly raping two other women — one claims Weinstein forced her to perform a sex act on him in 2006, while the other says he raped her in 2013. (RELATED: Harvey Weinstein Has ’40 Emails’ To Discredit A Rape Allegation)
Weinstein has been accused of sexually violating about 100 women. Both he and his attorneys vehemently maintain his innocence.