Paz de la Huerta's Allegations That Weinstein Raped Her Could Bring Charges

With more than 70 women having accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and/or rape, actress Paz de la Huerta's account of the movie mogul raping her twice in 2010 in New York, which falls within the state's statute of limitations, could be the tipping point that leads to Weinstein finally being charged and arrested.

"I believe based on my interviews with Paz that from the NYPD standpoint we have enough to make an arrest," said New York Police Department detective and lead investigator in the Weinstein case Nicholas DiGaudio, who interviewed de la Huerta.

Additionally, de la Huerta's attorney provided material to New York District Attorney Maxine B. Rosenthal, who is weighing bringing charges against Weinstein, Vanity Fair reports.

De la Huerta alleged that Weinstein raped her on two separate occasions in 2010 while her career was beginning to take off, as she'd starred in Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void the year before and she was a breakout in her recurring role on HBO's Martin Scorsese-helmed project Boardwalk Empire. The first rape occurred when she met with Weinstein at a Manhattan hotel and he offered to drive her back to her place in Tribeca, where he insisted on entering her apartment for a "drink" and proceeded to rape her, according to what she told Vanity Fair.

"Immediately, when we got inside the house, he started to kiss me and I kind of brushed [him] away," de la Huerta said. "Then he pushed me onto the bed and his pants were down and he lifted up my skirt. I felt afraid. ... It wasn't consensual. .... It happened very quickly. ... He stuck himself inside me. ... When he was done he said he'd be calling me. I kind of just laid on the bed in shock."

The second assault occurred when Weinstein turned up at her apartment after a photo shoot and forced his way in after having hounded her via the phone to speak with her, she said.

"He hushed me and said, 'Let's talk about this in your apartment,'" de la Huerta said. "I was in no state. I was so terrified of him. ... I did say no, and when he was on top of me I said, 'I don't want to do this.' He kept humping me and it was disgusting. He's like a pig. ... He raped me."

Since news first broke in early October that Weinstein had harassed and assaulted several women, more than 70 women have come forward with accusations against him, the #MeToo hashtag became a grassroots movement for survivors of assault, and the dominoes have continued to fall for serial sexual harassers across industries with many being fired and resigning from their jobs. But an arrest in the Weinstein scandal would be the first criminal charges to come out of the movement to stop harassers in their tracks.