NEW YORK — Prosecutors said Tuesday that they didn’t have enough evidence to prove a model’s claim that movie producer Harvey Weinstein groped her in 2015.
Ambra Battilana Gutierrez told police the movie magnate touched her thigh, grabbed her breasts and asked “are these real?” during a meeting in his Manhattan office on March 27, 2015. Police investigated it as a possible case of forcible touching, a misdemeanor with a two-year time limit for bringing charges under New York law.
The case made headlines at the time, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s office publicly explained then that it had conducted a thorough investigation and concluded “a criminal charge is not supported.”
But the decision is getting new scrutiny.
Vance’s office on Tuesday “strongly encouraged” anyone who may have been victimized by Weinstein in Manhattan to contact prosecutors. But Chief Assistant District Attorney Karen Friedman-Agnifilo defended the office’s decision not to pursue Weinstein, who’s behind films including “Pulp Fiction” and “Clerks,” in 2015.
“If we could have prosecuted Harvey Weinstein for the conduct that occurred in 2015, we would have,” she said.
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