Harvey Weinstein seems in legal court docket in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Picture by way of AP)
For the reason that #MeToo motion took off, a mess of male Hollywood stars have been accused of intercourse crimes, however solely a handful of these within the music and movie industries have truly confronted legal expenses.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has now joined that quick checklist of prosecuted stars.
Here’s a checklist of among the most outstanding males to face legal expenses in recent times and the end result of these circumstances:
Harvey Weinstein
The ex-movie mogul was prosecuted in each New York and California after dozens of girls got here ahead to publicly accuse him of sexual assault.
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Within the Los Angeles case, a jury convicted Weinstein in 2022 of raping and sexually assaulting certainly one of 4 girls he was charged with abusing. The three responsible counts concerned an Italian actor and mannequin who stated Weinstein appeared at her lodge room, uninvited, throughout a Los Angeles movie competition in 2013.
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Weinstein, 72, was later acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by a therapeutic massage therapist who handled him at a lodge in 2010. The jury was unable to achieve a choice on counts involving two different accusers. A mistrial was declared on these counts.
Within the New York case, Weinstein was initially convicted in 2020 of raping one lady and sexually assaulting one other, adopted weeks of harrowing and graphic testimony from a string of accusers. However his 23-year jail sentence and conviction was overturned earlier this 12 months, with New York’s highest court docket saying the trial choose unfairly allowed testimony primarily based on allegations that weren’t a part of the case.
A retrial has been scheduled and Manhattan prosecutors this week introduced a brand new indictment with extra allegations from one other lady. The trial had been scheduled to start out in November however is now unlikely to start till 2025.
READ: How Hollywood stars react to Harvey Weinstein ruling
Weinstein, who additionally faces a number of civil lawsuits introduced by girls accusing him of sexual misconduct, denies sexually assaulting anybody and is interesting his California conviction.
Invoice Cosby
Invoice Cosby arrives for his sentencing listening to on the Montgomery County Courthouse, Sept. 24, 2018, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. (AP Picture/Matt Slocum, File)
The former “Cosby Present” star was the primary superstar to go on trial within the #MeToo period.
He was arrested in 2015 when a district lawyer armed with newly unsealed proof – Cosby’s damaging deposition in a lawsuit introduced by Temple College sports activities administrator Andrea Constand – filed expenses in opposition to him simply days earlier than the 12-year statute of limitations was about to expire. Constand accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her.
The AP doesn’t usually establish sexual assault victims with out their permission, which Constand has granted.
Jurors couldn’t attain a unanimous verdict when Cosby was placed on trial in 2017. At a second trial in 2018, he was convicted and sentenced to as much as a decade in jail. However the Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket in 2021 stated the district lawyer who made the choice to arrest Cosby was obligated to face by a predecessor’s promise to not cost Cosby, although there was no proof that settlement was ever put in writing.
Cosby, now 87, has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by greater than 60 girls. He has denied all allegations involving intercourse crimes.
R. Kelly
R. Kelly leaves the Daley Heart after a listening to in his youngster assist case, Might 8, 2019, in Chicago. (AP Picture/Matt Marton, File)
Federal juries in Chicago and New York convicted Kelly, now 56, of crimes that embody producing youngster sexual abuse supplies and federal intercourse trafficking expenses.
Born Robert Sylvester Kelly, he was sentenced to 30 years within the New York case final 12 months and a largely concurrent 20-year sentence in February within the Chicago case.
The 57-year-old was accused of utilizing his fame to sexually abuse younger followers, together with some who have been simply youngsters, in a scientific scheme that went on for many years.
The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling songwriter additionally was accused of utilizing his entourage of managers and aides to fulfill women and preserve them from talking out, an operation that prosecutors stated amounted to a legal enterprise.
Attorneys for R. Kelly are interesting his convictions.
Sean “Diddy” Combs
Sean “Diddy” Combs seems on the premiere of “Can’t Cease, Received’t Cease: A Dangerous Boy Story” on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California. (AP Picture by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
The hip-hop mogul was arrested in New York on Sept. 16 and was accused in an indictment of utilizing his ” energy and status ” to induce feminine victims and male intercourse staff into drug-fueled sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.”
Prosecutors stated he used violence and threats of blackmail to maintain folks from talking out. Combs, 54, faces federal racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking expenses that would put him in jail for at the least 15 years if he’s convicted on all counts.
A choose Wednesday, Sept. 18, rejected the hip-hop mogul’s proposal that he await his intercourse trafficking trial within the luxurious of his Florida mansion as a substitute of a federal jail in Brooklyn.
Kevin Spacey
Actor Kevin Spacey walks exterior Southwark Crown Court docket in London, July 26, 2023. (AP Picture/Alberto Pezzali, File)
Final 12 months, a London jury acquitted the Oscar-winning actor of sexual assault expenses stemming from allegations by 4 males relationship again 20 years.
Three males accused Spacey of aggressively grabbing their crotches, describing him as “vile” and a “slippery, snaky” predator. Spacey stated he was a “massive flirt” who had consensual flings with males and whose solely misstep was touching a person’s groin whereas making a “clumsy cross.”
The court docket victory in England got here after Spacey additionally efficiently defended himself in opposition to a civil lawsuit in New York in 2022 introduced by “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp.
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. seems in court docket, Jan. 22, 2020, in New York. (Alec Tabak/The Day by day Information by way of AP, Pool, File)
The Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” star pleaded responsible in 2022 to forcibly kissing a employee at a New York nightclub in 2018 — and in return prosecutors dropped expenses involving two different girls that would have led to a attainable jail time period if the case had gone to trial and resulted in a conviction.
Gooding additionally publicly apologized for the primary time to 2 different girls who accused him of comparable habits in separate encounters, calling himself a “superstar determine” who meant no hurt. His admissions have been a part of a plea deal that got here practically three years after Gooding was arrested.
Gooding informed the choose he “kissed the waitress on her lips” with out consent.
Danny Masterson
Danny Masterson arrives at an occasion, March 24, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Picture by Annie I. Bang/Invision/AP, File)
“That ’70s Present” star is serving a sentence of 30 years to life in jail for raping two girls.
After an preliminary jury failed to achieve verdicts on three counts of rape in December 2022 and a mistrial was declared, prosecutors retried Masterson on all three counts.
At his second trial, a jury discovered Masterson responsible of two of three rape counts on Might 31. Each assaults occurred in Masterson’s Hollywood-area residence in 2003, when he was on the top of his fame.
They may not attain a verdict on the third rely, an allegation that Masterson additionally raped a longtime girlfriend.
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Prosecutors alleged that Masterson used his prominence within the Church of Scientology – the place all three girls have been additionally members on the time – to keep away from penalties for many years after the assaults, and the ladies blamed the church for his or her hesitancy in going to police about Masterson.
