Hollywood producer Eric Weinberg was arrested by Los Angeles police on Tuesday after prosecutors charged him with 18 counts of sexual assault, following years of allegations of abuse by women he had met at Hollywood.
The former ‘Scrubs’ co-executive producer was arrested by sex crimes detectives after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged him with multiple counts of rape, forced oral copulation, sexual assault, false imprisonment , assault to cause grievous bodily harm and sexual penetration by a foreign object, according to court records.
More than half a dozen women have alleged over the past seven years that Weinberg, 62, lured them to his home, often under the guise of a photo shoot, before restraining and sexually assaulting them, Police interviews and records obtained by The Times in July showed.
Los Angeles Police Department sex crimes investigators previously arrested him on July 14 for multiple sexual assaults, including rape, between 2012 and 2019. LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz said the department identified at least eight women Weinberg may have victimized. Prosecutors said Wednesday that “dozens” of women have come forward since news of Weinberg’s arrest first broke.
“I believe that as a society we need to do more to protect women and girls,” Los Angeles County Dist said. Atti. said George Gascón during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. “Socially, for far too long, we have accepted this sexual assault and assault as a reality that women need to guard against.”
Gascón said the allegations that led to the filing of charges were made by five different women and stemmed from incidents that occurred between 2014 and 2019.
The district attorney said prosecutors asked a judge to deny Weinberg bail, given the seriousness of the charges, but their request was denied. Weinberg was released instead on $5 million on Wednesday.
“If you’re rich, you have to bail out. If you’re poor, you can stay regardless of the severity of the offence,” said Gascón, a longtime opponent of cash bail. “Mr. Weinberg was able to commit these crimes because of his power, wealth and privilege.
Weinberg could not be reached for comment. But his attorney, Robin Sax, in an unrelated child custody case, denied any wrongdoing, calling the women’s statements a “blatant smear campaign” with “unconscionable and unsubstantiated allegations” designed to portray Weinberg as “the most horrible light”.
Sax could not immediately be reached for comment.
Weinberg’s arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 25.
Micha Star Liberty, a Bay Area civil rights attorney who represents some of the women accusing Weinberg of abuse, said in a statement that she was “grateful that the district attorney acted to promote accountability.”
“The massive number of victims and the horrific impact inflicted on these women will not go unresolved,” she said. “We will not rest until justice is served.”
According to police and civil court records, Weinberg lured women from cafes, supermarkets and a Los Feliz pie shop to his Edgemont Street home.
After one encounter, a woman began using a Facebook group to warn others about Weinberg’s alleged behavior, according to a statement filed in family court. Los Angeles police had investigated Weinberg for sexual assault twice before his arrest in July, records show.
During divorce and custody proceedings in October 2020, three women testified that Weinberg sexually assaulted them during photo shoots. His wife’s attorney at the time alleged that Weinberg also tried to pick up a teenage girl who attended their son’s high school and that the girl happened to know his son, according to a child custody file from 2020 in LA County Family Court.
Detectives said Weinberg would approach women in their 20s and 30s and arrange photo shoots with them. Sometimes he talked about his career in Hollywood.
Weinberg worked as a producer or writer on 92 episodes of “Scrubs,” a popular sitcom starring Zach Braff from 2001 to 2007. He was also a producer on “Veronica’s Closet,” “Californication” and “Anger Management,” as well as “Men at Work”, which featured Danny Masterson, who was also accused of sexually abusing multiple women.
Masterson’s trial on three counts of rape is due to begin later this month.
LAPD investigators previously presented cases to prosecutors involving allegations that Weinberg raped women in April and August 2014, but the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute, citing insufficient evidence, according to court records and the police.
“It was not until detectives received a recent late-reported rape that they opened another investigation into Weinberg,” LAPD officials said in a statement to The Times. “It was…this newly reported crime that led detectives to identify the additional victims.”
Detectives have since presented several new cases, which are being reviewed with the district attorney’s office, authorities said.
According to an LAPD statement, detectives knew the Facebook group was created after the first cases against Weinberg were dismissed, and investigators are reviewing social media posts to identify other possible victims.
Documents filed in a family law case between Weinberg and his ex-wife show allegations of three women of sexually violent encounters with him from 2014 to 2019. The dates of these incidents do not match other previously dismissed allegations by prosecutors. The Times does not identify victims of sexual assault without their consent unless they publicly discuss their allegations.
A young woman has claimed she was 22 when she met Weinberg at a cafe, Republic of Pie, in North Hollywood’s Arts District.
“Eric raped and physically assaulted me in 2014 after he convinced me to come to his house for a photo shoot,” she said in a 2020 statement filed in a family law case involving Weinberg.
The woman said Weinberg seemed professional, showing her photos he had taken of other women and telling her he was a father of three. On April 29, 2014, they met at his home, she said. She agreed to strip down to her bra and underwear, and Weinberg told the woman she had to apply lotion ‘because it was good for the lighting,’ according to court records. .
“While Eric was putting lotion on my back, he started to take off my underwear…I never told Eric he could undress me, and I didn’t consent to my undressing. ‘he sticks his tongue out at me,’ the woman told a court. statement. “I didn’t know what was happening and I was terrified. I didn’t know how I was going to get away from him. I completely froze.
She said he kept taking pictures as he bedridden her and forced her to perform oral sex. He then strangled her “and squeezed so hard I thought I was going to pass out” and then he raped her, she alleged in the statement. Then, she said, he loaded the photos onto a USB drive and gave them to her.
In another affidavit, a 31-year-old North Hollywood storyboard artist said she met Weinberg at Ralph’s in February 2019. He asked her if she was a model and if her breasts were natural, he said. -she said, then offered to take pictures of herself after telling her about her family and her work on “Scrubs”.
She said when she came to his house, the photoshoot started in what appeared to be a girl’s room. At first he was professional, but as the nude model and photographer moved to other locations, things took a sexually violent turn, according to court documents.
Almost a year later, according to court records, a 30-year-old woman met Weinberg on the online dating app OK Cupid and went for a glass of wine with him before heading to his house to listen to the music, according to the woman’s statement filed. in a family court case involving Weinberg.
After making out in the living room, they went to the bedroom and began consensual undressing, but then he became aggressive, forcing her to perform sex acts while he restrained her, the woman said in the statement.
In the aftermath, she said in court papers, “he spent the hour trying to convince me that I had ‘misremembered’… [but] I knew I was not consenting.
