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Los Angeles Police Investigate Rape Claim Against Weinstein

The Los Angeles police are investigating a woman’s claim that she was raped by Harvey Weinstein, the former movie mogul, who is already under investigation in New York and London for alleged sexual assaults in those cities.

“The Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division has interviewed a potential sexual assault victim involving Harvey Weinstein, which allegedly occurred in 2013,” a department spokesman, Officer Sal Ramirez, said. Because the case is under investigation, he said, there was “no further information at this time.”

On Oct. 5, The New York Times reported that Mr. Weinstein had reached settlements with at least eight women who claimed that he sexually harassed or made unwanted physical contact with them. On Oct. 10, The New Yorker reported on accusations of sexual assault, harassment and coercion from a number of other women.

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Already under investigation in New York and London, Harvey Weinstein now faces a rape investigation in Los Angeles.Credit...Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Chris Pizzello/Invision/Ap

Since then, dozens of women, including some of the world’s best-known actresses, have stepped forward with a wide range of allegations against Mr. Weinstein — that he had harassed them, pressured them for sex, threatened their careers if they did not comply, or sexually assaulted them.

A prominent Los Angeles lawyer, David M. Ring, said that the woman making the latest allegation was his client, an Italian actress and model, and that police detectives had interviewed her on Thursday. He said the women who have spoken out “gave my client the support and encouragement to hold Weinstein accountable for this horrible act.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Weinstein, Sallie Hofmeister, said that “Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but he unequivocally denies allegations of nonconsensual sex.”

Mr. Ring declined to provide details of the allegation, but his client spoke to The Los Angeles Times.

The woman, now 38, said the assault took place in February 2013, after Mr. Weinstein approached her in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel, where she was staying, and asked her to invite him to her room. After she refused and went upstairs, Mr. Weinstein appeared at her door anyway and entered the room.

Mr. Weinstein “became very aggressive and demanding and kept asking to see me naked,” she told The Los Angeles Times.

She said that after she would not give in to his bullying and coercion, he dragged her into the bathroom and raped her.

“He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do,” she told the newspaper.

“He made me feel like an object,” she said, “like nothing with all his power.”

Amid the flood of accusations against Mr. Weinstein, the Weinstein Company, where he was a co-chairman, fired him, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled him.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Los Angeles Police Dept. Is Investigating Rape Claim Against Former Movie Mogul. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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