Yahoo News Los Angeles District Attorney Decides Against Bringing Charges in Armie Hammer Sexual Misconduct Case
The Los Angeles District Attorney has chosen not to go forward with charges against Armie Hammer stemming from a 2021 Los Angeles Police Department investigation due to a lack of firm evidence.
“Sexual assault cases are often difficult to prove, which is why we assign our most experienced prosecutors to review them. In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review, but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime,” Tiffiny Blacknell, director of the Bureau of Communications at the L.A. D.A.’s office, told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.
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“As prosecutors, we have an ethical responsibility to only charge cases that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. We know that it is hard for women to report sexual assault. Even when we cannot move forward with a prosecution, our victim service representatives will be available to those who seek our victim support services. Due to the complexity of the relationship and inability to prove a non-consensual, forcible sexual encounter we are unable to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” she added.
In the wake of the decision against bringing charges, Hammer on Instagram thanked the Los Angeles D.A. office for its review. “I am grateful to the District Attorney for conducting a thorough investigation and coming to the conclusion that I have stood by this entire time, that no crime was committed,” he wrote.
Hammer previously denied the allegations through a 2021 statement to THR from his legal rep, Andrew Brettler.
On his Instagram post, Hammer said he now looked to put the criminal investigation behind him. “I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name is cleared,” he added.
In February 2021, the Los Angeles Police Department began to investigate Hammer for sexual assault in a case involving Efrosina Angelova, who said in a March 2021 press conference that the actor had raped her in 2017. That followed several women coming forward with allegations of misconduct against Hammer in January 2021.
Following those claims, the actor was dropped by his representation, including WME, and withdrew from a number of projects, including Broadway play The Minutes, film projects Shotgun Wedding and Billion Dollar Spy, and Paramount+’s Godfather TV series The Offer.
May 31, 2:36 p.m. Updated with Armie Hammer’s instagram statement.
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