Police poised to arrest Harvey Weinstein

The NYPD is poised to arrest Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, according to reports.

Weinstein is facing multiple accusations of sexual assault and harassment, and now the cases against him appear to be moving ahead.

An unnamed police official told The Daily Beast: “We’re ready to go with an arrest.”

A statement from the NYPD’s chief of detectives Robert Boyce appears to back this up.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, as reported by Variety, he said: “We are still accumulating evidence, it’s going very very well.

“We have a lot of information, we have people who are getting ready to go to grand jury.”

He added that what happens next will be the decision of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, saying: “It’s his case right now.”

The district attorney’s office has declined to comment.

Among those known to have filed complaints against Weinstein to the NYPD’s special victims unit are Boardwalk Empire actress Paz de la Huerta, who says the producer raped her in 2010, and Lucia Evans, a college student and aspiring actress who claims he lured her to a meeting and then sexually assaulted her in 2004.

Speaking to The New Yorker, Evans said: “I tried to get away, but maybe I didn’t try hard enough. I didn’t want to kick him or fight him… 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 is also being investigated by police in Los Angeles and London, and has been accused by more than 80 women of sexual impropriety, from harassment to rape, including Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, Uma Thurman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie.

Salma Hayek claims that Weinstein terrorised her, and threatened to have her killed when she rebuffed his advances.

The producer, who is responsible for making dozens of Oscar-winning movies, as well as launching the careers of directors like Quentin Tarantino, continues to deny the allegations against him.

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