LOS ANGELES — Actor Armie Hammer will not face criminal charges in connection with allegations of sexual assault made in 2021, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
The district attorney’s office said there was insufficient evidence to charge “The Social Network” and “Call Me by Your Name” actor with a crime.
“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,” district attorney’s spokesperson Tiffiny Blacknell said in a statement.
A woman, who has identified herself only as Effie, had publicly accused Hammer of sexual assault. Police confirmed in 2021 that detectives were investigating an allegation and the case was forwarded to the district attorney’s office for review earlier this year.
In a statement Wednesday on Instagram, Hammer, 36, thanked supporters and those who helped him.
“I am very 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. “I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name is cleared.”
Effie said Wednesday she was disappointed in the decision not to charge Hammer.
“I felt a duty to speak out and file a report in order to try to hold Armie accountable for all the harm and trauma he has caused me and in order to protect other women from experiencing similar abuse,” she said in a statement to NBC News.
The woman said that since coming forward she has experienced death threats and harassment.
Blacknell, the district attorney’s spokesperson, said that sexual assault cases are among the most difficult to prove, and that the office assigns its most experienced prosecutors to review them.
“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,” she said.
Effie has said she was 20 in 2016 when she began an affair with Hammer, who was married at the time, after they connected on Facebook.
She claimed he raped her in 2017 and committed other acts of violence against her, and that “I thought that he was going to kill me.”
Hammer appeared in the 2010 film “The Social Network” as twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and he starred as Oliver in the 2017 film “Call Me By Your Name.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
