MANHATTAN — NYPD investigators plan to take another look at sex crime allegations against Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein, who's been accused of rape and sexual assault by a growing number of women, law-enforcement sources said.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce has told the Special Victims Division to go back and try to interview other potential victims of Weinstein’s — two days after the New Yorker reported that three women have claimed the famed director sexually assaulted them, sources said.
“It’s not like they’re going to talk to everyone Weinstein has ever talked to,” one law-enforcement said. “It’s more if anyone’s been a victim or feels like they’ve been a victim, come forward.”
The NYPD looked into an alleged 2015 groping incident involving Weinstein and model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, even obtaining audio of the movie mogul apparently confessing to the crime.
“Why yesterday you touch my breast?” Battilana Gutierrez is heard asking on the recording, which The New Yorker published.
“Oh, please, I’m sorry, just come in,” Weinstein responded. “I’m used to that."
But Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the NYPD botched the probe into Weinstein by not consulting with his office first.
“We really did what I think the law obligates us to do — focus on the evidence and the facts that we had,” Vance said Wednesday. “We relied on the true professionals to help guide us to the decision, which is not always going to be the popular decision.”
