Harvey Weinstein is turning himself in to the police

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By VT

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Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein will surrender to law enforcement and turn himself in to New York police on Friday over the numerous charges of sexual misconduct he faces.

Weinstein faces arrest after a grand jury investigation. More than 80 women in the film industry have made numerous allegations against the former Weinstein Company founder, which include rape and sexual harrassment. Weinstein is expected to be escorted to Manhattan Criminal Court to be arraigned on the charges against him. Weinstein will also put up $1 million in cash and agree to wear a monitoring device, and during proceedings his travel will be restricted and his passport is to be confiscated.

Weinstein is to be charged with first degree rape and third-degree rape in one instance, and with a criminal sex act in the first degree in the case of another. The latter charge stems from actress Lucia Evans, who has told the Manhattan DA's office that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him at the Miramax office, in what she assumed was to be a meeting regarding casting. The former victim's identity has not been made public.

The reason that only these two cases are being brought to the grand jury is due to the nature of the statue of limitations on crimes committed in New York in the past. However, even if these limitations end up applying, it's still possible that a judge could call other victims to testify, in order to establish a pattern of behaviour. In fact, this was used to prosecute actor Bill Cosby in his sex abuse trial.

Weinstein's career has been in serious decline in the wake of the revelations made by the New York Times in 2017 over his sexual misconduct. Weinstein was fired from the Weinstein Company, the production company he founded, which subsequently filed for bankruptcy as a result of the negative PR. The organisation behind the Oscars has also expelled him, and his wife, English fashion designer and actress Georgina Chapman, left him following the revelations about his alleged crimes. As a result, the Time's Up movement was formed to bring to justice perpetrators of sexual assault and harrassment in the entertainment industry, and a number of other prominent figures, such as actor Kevin Spacey, have since been implicated.