Harvey Weinstein turns himself in on criminal charges - ABC News

Harvey Weinstein turned himself into police in New York City this morning to face criminal charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Interested in Harvey Weinstein?

The disgraced movie producer was carrying three books, including Todd Purdum's "Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution," as he got out of a black SUV and walked past the swarm of TV cameras and reporters and through the front door of the New York Police Department's 1st Precinct in Manhattan.

He was subsequently arrested, processed and charged with rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct for alleged incidents involving two separate women, police said.

"The NYPD thanks these brave survivors for their courage to come forward and seek justice," the NYPD said in a statement. "The arrest and ensuing charges are the result of a joint investigation between the NYPD and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office."

Weinstein, 66, has been accused by dozens of women of sexual misconduct and has been investigated by the New York City Police Department, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the New York Attorney General’s Office, the Los Angeles Police Department and U.K. authorities. He has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.

The criminal sex act charge stems from an allegation brought by Lucia Evans, who has said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex during what she thought would be a casting call. The rape charge stems from an allegation by a woman who has not been publicly identified.

Evans told Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker magazine last year that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004.

Consequences for Weinstein were swift and severe. Immediately after the first allegations emerged last October, he was terminated by his production company and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

His personal life imploded too. Weinstein's wife of more than a decade, Marchesa co-founder Georgina Chapman, announced that she was leaving him. Their divorce has yet to be finalized.

In an interview today on ABC News' "Good Morning America" with co-anchor Robin Roberts, Farrow said Weinstein's arrest was preceded by "a lot of sleepless nights" for Evans and the other accusers he spoke with.

"When I first began speaking to Harvey Weinstein's accusers, they were correctly terrified, they feared retaliation, they feared for their physical safety," Farrow said. "And now we live in a universe in which it is conceivable that survivors speak on an issue like this about someone that powerful and they're heard.”

Weinstein voluntarily returned to New York to turn himself in rather than waiting for police to arrest him on their terms, in an attempt at "controlling the circus," a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Weinstein's legal and public relations teams realized that, in the current social and political climate, he would be indicted and arrested despite his consistent denial of nonconsensual sex, two sources told ABC News.

Later this morning, Weinstein was escorted out of the 1st Precinct with a smile on his face and his hands cuffed behind his back. He was then transported in an unmarked SUV to the New York State Supreme Court Building in Manhattan.

ABC News' Josh Margolin, Kelly McCarthy and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.