New York (CNN) Harvey Weinstein was arraigned Friday on charges of first- and third-degree rape and committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree, seven months after women began to come forward with stories alleging sexual misconduct by the famed Hollywood producer.
The charges filed Friday stem from incidents with two separate women in 2013 and 2004, the Manhattan district attorney said in a statement, and were the result of a joint investigation between police and the Manhattan DA's office.
"Mr. Weinstein has always maintained that he has never engaged in non-consensual sexual behavior with anyone. Nothing about today's proceedings changes Mr. Weinstein's position. He has entered a plea of not guilty and fully expects to be exonerated," attorney Benjamin Brafman said in a statement after the arraignment.
As part of the agreement between Brafman and the DA's office, Weinstein's bond was set at $10 million. The 66-year-old is required to wear a GPS monitoring system and is only allowed to travel within New York state or Connecticut. He also surrendered his passport.
The judge also granted a temporary order of protection on behalf of an unnamed victim in the case.
A source familiar with the investigation told CNN the criminal sex act charge was from a case involving aspiring actress Lucia Evans, who alleges Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in his Tribeca office in 2004. Evans has not responded to any of CNN's requests for comment since first speaking out about Weinstein in the New Yorker last fall.
The alleged victim in the rape case has not been publicly identified, the source said.
More charges are expected as a grand jury continues to hear testimony in the state's case with at least four women expected to testify, the source said.
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In a statement, Evans' attorney, Carrie Goldberg, said Weinstein's arrest was "an emotional moment."
"Harvey Weinstein's arrest came to pass as a result of our client's bravery in coming forward and the tenacity of law enforcement," Goldberg said.
"The arrest and future trial of Harvey Weinstein is but one victory in the war against sexual violence," she added.
"That war is far from over. Believe victims."
"We intend to move very quickly to dismiss these charges," Brafman told reporters outside the courthouse. "We believe that they are constitutionally flawed. We believe that they are not factually supported by the evidence, and we believe that at the end of the process Mr. Weinstein will be exonerated."
Weinstein leaves precinct handcuffed
Carrying a stack of books, the former Hollywood producer walked into a New York police precinct office through a gauntlet of reporters and photographers earlier Friday to the snapping of camera shutters.
Weinstein leaves the police precinct Friday in New York.
It was a scene not unlike the red carpet walks he used to do, further highlighting how far he has fallen since dozens of women came forward in the New York Times and the New Yorker to publicly accuse him of sexual misconduct.
After being processed, Weinstein left the precinct office, his hands cuffed behind his back, and got into a large black SUV.
Other investigations under way
Weinstein is also under investigation for alleged sex crimes in Los Angeles and London. Federal prosecutors in New York have started a sex crimes investigation involving him, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The charges follow a flood of accusations against Weinstein that led women around the world to come forward with accounts of being sexually harassed by powerful men. His accusers welcomed the news as a sign that the tables were finally turning -- not only on him but on other accused predators.
"I, and so many of Harvey Weinstein's survivors, had given up hope that our rapist would be held accountable by law. Twenty years ago, I swore that I would right this wrong. Today we are one step closer to justice," actress Rose McGowan, one of the first women to publicly accuse Weinstein of assault, said Thursday.
"We were young women who were assaulted by Weinstein and later terrorized by his vast network of complicity. I stand with my fellow survivors. May this give hope to all victims and survivors everywhere that are telling their truths," she said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Dozens of accusations
Weinstein has been accused of rape, assault and other forms of sexual misconduct. Weinstein's representative has said he sought treatment after the accusations, and Brafman repeated in his statement Friday that his client has said he "never engaged in non-consensual sexual behavior with anyone."
Dozens of women have come forward publicly to accuse Weinstein of misconduct after reports in 2017 about his treatment of women, including actresses with whom he worked.
Two of those women, Asia Argento and Ashley Judd, tweeted an article Thursday about Weinstein turning himself in. Paz de la Huerta , another Weinstein accuser, declined to comment on the news.
"After decades of abusing women with impunity, finally, the beginning of the end of Harvey Weinstein's reign of terror," Argento said in a statement to CNN. "I wish I could say this brings me peace. Unfortunately, the damage he has done to women can never be undone. He belongs in prison."
The women said Weinstein threatened to ruin their careers if they went public with their accounts. On Thursday, New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor recounted in a tweet some of his threats and declared "not anymore."
"One phone call and you're done."
"I have eyes and ears everywhere."
"I'm Harvey Weinstein, you know what I can do."
Not anymore. https://t.co/j3x8njJZWJ — jodikantor (@jodikantor) May 24, 2018
Ronan Farrow, who wrote the New Yorker's report on Weinstein, told CNN Friday that many of the producer's accusers believed they'd never see justice.
"Not in a million years, and one of the hardest conversations I had over and over again with these brave women was that in addition to the sacrifice they were making in telling this story, they didn't think they would ever be heard if they did take that leap, let alone to see actual accountability," Farrow said.
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Movement gains steam
On Thursday, CNN reported that several women have accused actor Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior and harassment.
#MeToo also sparked conversations about everyday workplace harassment
Tarana Burke , who started #MeToo, said Weinstein's intention to turn himself in marked a turning point in the conversation.
"This moves from the court of public of opinion into an actual courtroom," Burke told Variety
"That is super cathartic for a bunch of the survivors, or even survivors who are not necessarily victimized by him."
Mia Farrow, the actress whose son Ronan Farrow reported on the Harvey Weinstein scandal, reached out to one of the mega producer's accusers on Twitter.
Farrow tweeted at actress Mira Sorvino, who gave her account of Weinstein's behavior in a New York magazine piece last year. Earlier this morning, Sorvino tweeted a CNN story that reported Weinstein would be charged with rape.
"Today is for you," Farrow tweeted to Sorvino. "And also for the young women who would surely have become his next victims."
Here's the full message:
NEW YORK -- Harvey Weinstein entered a plea of not guilty Friday to rape and other charges from encounters with two women, his attorney said. The former powerhouse movie producer stared grimly as he appeared in a Manhattan court.
Seven months after the allegations destroyed his career and catalyzed the #MeToo movement, Weinstein turned himself in to face the charges, which stem from encounters with two of the dozens who have accused him of sexual misdeeds ranging from harassment to assault.
Federal authorities have also been investigating Weinstein since at least January.
"This defendant used his position, money and power to lure young women into situations where he was able to violate them sexually," Manhattan Assistant Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said in court. Weinstein grimaced and raised his eyebrows as he heard her words.
Weinstein has consistently denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Friday that he would fight to get the charges dismissed, saying they're factually unsupported and constitutionally flawed. And he began to take aim at the accusations and accusers, noting that the alleged attacks weren't reported to police when they happened and suggesting potential jurors wouldn't believe the women.
"Assuming," he added, "we get 12 fair people who are not consumed by the movement that seems to have overtaken this case."
Weinstein was released on $1 million bail, with constant electronic monitoring and a ban on traveling beyond New York and Connecticut. He left through a courthouse back door.
He has until Wednesday to decide whether to testify before a grand jury.
Reuters/Lucas Jackson
A make-or-break Hollywood producer until the allegations destroyed his career last fall, Weinstein, 66, found himself surrounded by lights and cameras in a spectacle he couldn't control.
"You sorry, Harvey?" came a shout from a throng of media as the once powerful movie mogul walked into a lower Manhattan courthouse in handcuffs, his head bowed. Asked "What can you say?" he mildly shook his head and softly said "No."
Weinstein was charged with rape and a criminal sex act as well as lower-level sex abuse and sexual misconduct charges.
Weinstein turned himself in at the police station early Friday. With a hoard of media surrounding him, Weinstein lumbered into the station wearing a blazer and carrying books including "Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution," about the Broadway musical duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and "Elia Kazan," about the famed film director,
Brafman has previously said that Weinstein has consistently denied any allegations of "nonconsensual sex."
Lucia Evans, who has said the Hollywood mogul forced her to perform oral sex on him in his office when she was an aspiring actress, confirmed to The New Yorker that she was pressing charges. She was among the first women to speak out about the producer.
"At a certain point, you have to think about the greater good of humanity, of womankind," she told the magazine.
Evans told The New Yorker in a story published in October that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex during a daytime meeting at his New York office in 2004, the summer before her senior year at Middlebury College.
"I said, over and over, 'I don't want to do this, stop, don't,'" she told the magazine. "I tried to get away, but maybe I didn't try hard enough. I didn't want to kick him or fight him."
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance had been under enormous public pressure to bring a criminal case against Weinstein. Some women's groups, including the Hollywood activist group Time's Up, accused the Democrat of being too deferential to Weinstein and too dismissive of his accusers.
A grand jury has been hearing evidence in the case for weeks.
In March, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo took the extraordinary step of ordering the state's attorney general to investigate whether Vance acted properly in 2015 when he decided not to prosecute Weinstein over a previous allegation of unwanted groping, made by an Italian model. That investigation is in its preliminary stages.
More than 75 women have accused Weinstein of wrongdoing around the globe. Several actresses and models accused him of criminal sexual assaults, but many of the encounters happened too long ago for any prosecution. Film actress Rose McGowan said Weinstein raped her in 1997 in Utah, "Sopranos" actress Annabella Sciorra said he raped her in her New York apartment in 1992 and Norwegian actress Natassia Malthe said he attacked her in a London hotel room in 2008.
Steven Hirsch/Pool via Reuters
On NBC, McGowan told Megyn Kelly how she felt seeing Weinstein being led out of the police station after his arrest.
"To see him in cuffs on the way out ... it's a very good feeling," McGowan said. "I actually didn't believe this day would come."
The statute of limitations for rape and certain other sex crimes in New York was eliminated in 2006, but not for attacks that happened prior to 2001.
New York City police detectives said in early November that they were investigating allegations by another accuser, "Boardwalk Empire" actress Paz de la Huerta, who told police in October that Weinstein raped her twice in 2010. She is not one of the victims in the case on Friday; hers was still pending, officials said.
Authorities in California and London also are investigating assault allegations. Britain has no statute of limits on rape cases; some of the allegations under investigation there date to the 1980s.
Harvey and his brother Bob Weinstein started his now-bankrupt company after leaving Miramax, the company they founded in 1979 and which became a powerhouse in '90s indie film with hits like "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love." The Weinstein Co. found success with Oscar winners "The Artist" and "The King's Speech."
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Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, alongside his attorney, agrees to $10M bond and wear a GPS monitoring following rape and other sex charges in connection with accusations by two women.
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