Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein was indicted on three additional sexual assault charges on Monday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement. He now faces charges in connection with alleged incidents involving three women.
Weinstein, 66, was charged by a grand jury with one count of commiting a criminal sexual act in the first degree for an alleged forcible sexual act against a woman in July 2006, as well as two counts of felony predatory sexual assault, Vance said.
If convicted, the felony predatory sexual assault charges carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Weinstein attorney Benjamin Brafman said he will enter a plea of not guilty to the new charges.
“Mr. Weinstein maintains that all of these allegations are false and he expects to be fully vindicated,” Brafman said in a statement. “Furthermore, to charge Mr. Weinstein as a predator when the interactions were each consensual is simply not justified.”
The charges come on of top of his previous indictment for two counts of rape and one first-degree criminal sex act charge related to alleged incidents with a woman in 2013 and another woman in 2004. He pleaded not guilty to those charges last month and has been free after posting $1 million bail.
“A Manhattan Grand Jury has now indicted Harvey Weinstein on some of the most serious sexual offenses that exist under New York’s Penal Law,” Vance said in a statement. “This indictment is the result of the extraordinary courage exhibited by the survivors who have come forward.”
In all, Weinstein now faces six felony charges relating to three women: two counts of predatory sexual assault, two counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, and one count each of first-degree rape and third-degree rape.
Weinstein was one of the most powerful figures in the film industry until last year, when The New Yorker and The New York Times published accounts from several women accusing him of various forms of sexual assault and misconduct.
Since then, more than 40 women, including actresses Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Weinstein was fired from the Weinstein Company, which has since filed for bankruptcy and been sold off.
The women’s accounts — and the public’s willingness to believe them — emboldened others around the world to stand up to powerful, abusive men in what has come to be known as the #MeToo movement.