The Los Angeles Police department says it has opened an investigation into movie producer Harvey Weinstein after someone made allegations of sexual assault.

The LAPD announced the news via Twitter Thursday.

A police spokesman told the Associated Press that the department interviewed a possible sexual assault victim who reported an incident that occurred in 2013. The investigation is ongoing, and he could not answer any questions about when the interview or incident took place.

Weinstein has recently been fired from his production company and is under investigation in New York and London because of similar allegations.

Weinstein statement

Weinstein’s attorneys have released a statement saying, “We deny any allegations of nonconsensual sex, though obviously can’t respond to anonymous allegations.”

This was the second statement from Weinstein attorneys saying their client has not participated in nonconsensual sex.

Meantime, Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o has added her story to those of about 40 other women who say Weinstein sexually harassed them or attempted assault. In a piece published in The New York Times Thursday, Nyong’o says Weinstein met with her on several occasions, pressured her to drink alcohol, and pressured her for sex in exchange for help with her career.

Employee statement

And a group of anonymous staffers from the Weinstein Co., which fired its co-founder over the allegations earlier this month, published a joint statement Thursday expressing support for the women who have come forward and stating they were unaware of Weinstein’s alleged behavior as a “serial sexual predator.”

Weinstein Co. staffers sign a nondisclosure agreement as part of their contracts. The joint statement notes that even it, the statement, violates the nondisclosure agreement.

“We all knew that we were working for a man with an infamous temper,” the statement said. “We did not know we were working for a serial sexual predator. … We did not know that he used his power to systematically assault and silence women.”

The statement goes on to disavow any enabling of Weinstein’s behavior and express support for the women who have come forward, “many of whom we count among our own friends and colleagues,” it continued. “We see you, we admire you, and we are in this fight alongside you.”

News about Weinstein broke two weeks ago, when The New York Times and New Yorker magazine both published exposes of the legendary producer, citing allegations that go back as far as the 1980s.

In addition to being fired from his company, Weinstein has been thrown out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and stripped of various other honors.
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