Former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is currently facing four sex crimes charges from New York police in relation to sexual assaults, accusations which he has strongly denied. In 2017, Los Angeles police confirmed that a separate investigation was opened up in relation to his abusive sexual behaviour in southern California.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is currently considering filing criminal charges against disgraced filmmaker Hervey Weinstein, following an escalation of its earlier review about the producer’s alleged abusive behaviour, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing law enforcement sources.

The Beverley Hills and Los Angeles police departments opened investigations against Weinstein in 2017, with eight cases overall currently under review by the DA’s office, including two key cases that involve separate assault accusations allegedly occurring within the same week. The Los Angeles department was the first branch in southern California to launch a probe into Weinstein’s activities following a report from an Italian model-actress that she was raped by the producer at the Mr. C Beverley Hills hotel back in 2013.

In her previous interview with The Los Angeles Times, the actress, who remains unnamed by the media, said that she met with the filmmaker during the Los Angeles Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest back in 2013, after which he allegedly “bullied” his way to her hotel room.

“He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do”, the actress revealed to the media while recalling the incident. She said that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him and then “dragged” her to the bathroom and “forcibly raped” her.

This comes as part of a second wave of criminal prosecutions the former Hollywood mogul could possibly face, following criminal sex charges opened by New York police. He was arrested in May 2018 in New York, but then released on $1 million bail , with the criminal trial currently set to begin in January.

Since 2017, dozens of actresses and former Weinstein employees claimed that he raped or somehow forced them into having sex with him throughout his career in Hollywood, sparking an international anti-harassment “Me Too” campaign. Weinstein has denied all the charges of nonconsensual sex acts and pleaded not guilty to the charges he has faced so far.