Law&Crime Sidebar - Los Angeles District Attorney Confirms Armie Hammer Sex Probe Ongoing

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wonderly Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will

Starting point is 00:00:35 keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. My bet was going to involve showing up in your place and completely tying you up and incapacitating you and then being able to do whatever I wanted to do every single hole in your body. Following the announcement by Discovery Plus that a documentary was coming out about Army Hammer, we find out that the LADA's office is still investigating allegations by women of sexual abuse. So what does this mean for the actor? I'm Anjanette Levy, and welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast.

Starting point is 00:01:17 Well, we told you a couple of weeks ago about House of Hammer. And this documentary interviews women who said they took part in extreme bondage, cannibalism, fantasies, being tied up with Army Hammer by Army Hammer during these sexual encounters. And I reached out to the LADA's office at the time and they hadn't gotten back to me. Well, now they've gotten back to me. And they say that especially assigned prosecutor is working with law enforcement as they continue the investigation. Once law enforcement has completed their investigation, it submits the case to our office. We will conduct an evaluation and file criminal charges that are supported by the evidence. That is from a spokesperson from the LADA's office to me.

Starting point is 00:02:00 So joining me to talk about this is somebody who discussed this with me before, Entertainment lawyer Jonathan Handel. So Jonathan, welcome back to Sidebar. Thank you, Internet. Jonathan, I feel like this is kind of a big development because everything that you and I talked about, the last time we discussed Army Hammer and House of Hammer being released on Discovery Plus next month in September,

Starting point is 00:02:21 Friday, September 2nd, we had heard some reporting back in December that police were saying charges were unlikely. This was not a strong case because of Effie Angelova, a woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her. Some of the messages she had exchanged with people on Instagram saying basically, I'm not saying you rape me and things like that. And it made it sound like it was possibly consensual. Now we're hearing the investigation is ongoing. And this is nine or ten months after December of 2021. So what is your reaction to that? Well, again, and as a refresher for those just joining this story, the hammer denies the allegations and specifically says

Starting point is 00:02:59 that the conduct, whatever conduct did occur, was consensual, you know, S&M of various sorts and that sort of thing. But it is, it certainly is a rather stark acknowledgement by the DA that LAPD and the DA continue their investigation. They're working apparently cooperatively. And we simply don't know until that process plays out whether this is going to result in criminal charges or not result in criminal charges. And if it does result in criminal charges, what the outcome of that may be. It's important to remember that lots of things that people find awkward or uncomfortable or even distasteful. There are a lot of other people who find them enjoyable and exciting. And the difference between consent and lack of consent, of course, is extremely significant, whether you're

Starting point is 00:03:50 talking about, quote-unquote, vanilla sex act or an S&M sex act. Lots of people want to have sex with lots of other people, but lots of people also don't want to have sex with lots of other people. And consent makes all the difference. Women and men are entitled to have robust and exciting and interesting sex lives with people that they choose to have sex lives with and not with those that they don't. So I don't think that we should get too worked up over the specific nature of the allegations per se, unless and until it becomes clear whether those were coupled with a lack of consent, in which case is quite a serious matter, potentially. If there is a lack of consent, and these weren't consensual acts, obviously it's a crime.

Starting point is 00:04:37 And then the DA would have to decide whether or not they can meet that burden to prove these cases beyond a reasonable doubt. And I think it's important that you do point out back when we talked about Effie Angelova, one of the accusers represented by Gloria Allred. Andrew Brettler, when I had corresponded with him about this last year in the spring of 2021, he said that basically all of this was consensual. And he said that the Instagram messages and the graphic text messages that she sent to him undermine her claims. He called them outrageous allegations. So obviously, it appears there is some interest in S&M and kinky sex, bondage and things of this nature, whether or not it's consensual and whether or not it violated the law. Those are the real questions here. I do find it interesting,

Starting point is 00:05:21 though, that after all of these months, when we first heard back in December of 2021, yeah, it sounds like there won't be any charges, you know, filed, and then we heard nothing. And now this documentary is coming out with these women describing being tied up and taking part in these bondage fantasies, some talk about cannibalism, things of this nature, we find out, yes, indeed, the investigation is still ongoing, and they won't comment on whether or not they're looking into allegations made by other women. The fact that they won't comment on that, what does that tell you, if anything, Jonathan? Well, there suggests that they are looking into those allegations. And of course, parse some of this out. I mean, the cannibalism allegations are not literal cannibalism,

Starting point is 00:06:02 I don't think. I mean, no one is, I don't think anyone has said that their ear was actually eaten by Army Hammer, for example, or that Army actually went and, you know, ate someone for breakfast and, you know, and put the leftovers in his fridge. Right. And it's not an animal lector kind of thing. It's not an animal lector kind of thing. It's not a, you know, this is, and some of this is, you know, is sexting, is, you know, texting while sexually excited. And the extent to which, you know, when you're sexting an adult, it's not often that that

Starting point is 00:06:33 becomes unlawful in the absence of some kind of restraining. saying, hey, you're stalking this person or something. So, you know, it comes down to, you know, what probably comes down to, you know, what actual physical contact happened. And, you know, was there, if any contact happened, was there consent? But clearly the, I think the, the most that we can draw from this right now is that the, the DA, you know, and the police do seem to be taking this matter seriously and, and investigating it to see whether there's, whether there's more than smoke there, whether there's an indictable fire, so to speak. Right, most definitely. And Andrew Brettler, I reached out to him to see whether or not he had a comment on this. He is somebody's very

Starting point is 00:07:16 kind of famous guy, famous lawyer out there in L.A. And he's Army, we should say, he's Army Hammer's lawyer. Yeah, Army Hammer's lawyer. And I haven't heard back from him just yet. I've reached out to him in the past. He had told me that Army Hammer denied these allegations. I did just hear back from Gloria Allred, who said that there's no decision by the DA and the investigation is still pending. That tells you something right there. It's been now nine or ten months since December of 2021 when this was first handed over to the LADA. So they're still looking into it. I mean, this has been going on a long time.

Starting point is 00:07:52 So lengthy process for them, it seems, and perhaps lengthier than one might have expected. We don't know who they're interviewing, whether they're looking for corruption. You know, if there are only two people in a room and there's a claim that there is or wasn't consent, those can be, you know, those can be very hard situations. And among the things investigators look for is whether the complainant, the potential victim, spoke with other, with friends and other people contemporaneously and said, what? Hey, I had something bad happened to me or I had something. Or conversely, you know, I had something fun happened to me, whatever. What, what statements, if any, were made contemporaneously? And so there is a

Starting point is 00:08:32 You know, and if someone is alleging physical damage or rape, did they go, you know, to the hospital? Is there a rape kit? Or was there a rape kit, you know, involved? Were there any photographs of the conduct or of the aftermath, you know, evidence of ligatures, of, you know, having been tied up, things like that? So there's, there, it's, it's more than simply a he said, she said type investigation. There are other things that investigators look for, but exactly how, why it's taken, taking them nine 10 months is something of an interesting question, honestly. It really is. You would think they have

Starting point is 00:09:07 witnesses, at least Effie Angelova had come forward back then and had a press conference with Gloria Elrod. She had made statements. She filed the complaint, what have you. But it makes you think that maybe there is more going on here. So Jonathan Handel, entertainment lawyer, thanks again for coming on Sidebar to talk about this. We appreciate it. Thank you. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Michael Dininger. Bobby Zoki is our YouTube manager. Alyssa Fisher handles our bookings and Kiera Bronson does our social media. You can listen to Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can find it on the Law and Crime YouTube channel for you. Watch us. I'm Jeanette Levy and we will see next time.

Starting point is 00:09:58 series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Your Ad Here

Law&Crime Sidebar - Los Angeles District Attorney Confirms Armie Hammer Sex Probe Ongoing

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.