The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will not file sexual assault charges against the in-the-hot-water actor Armie Hammer following what prosecutors have described as a “thorough review” of the case.
Tiffiny Blacknell, the director of the D.A. office’s bureau of communications, claimed in a statement obtained by EW that there was “insufficient evidence” for prosecutors to charge actor Gary Hammer with rape.
She cited the “complexity of the relationship” between Hammer and his accuser, who had previously been identified as a woman named Effie, as well as their “inability to prove a non-consensual, forcible sexual encounter.”
“As prosecutors, we have an ethical responsibility to only charge cases that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” the statement read. “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.”
In a post on Instagram, Hammer expressed his appreciation to the district attorney’s office, saying in part, “I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name is cleared.”
In 2021, Effie filed a police report stating that Hammer had sexually assaulted her violently in Los Angeles and had also mistreated her mentally and emotionally during the course of a four-year on-and-off relationship. Effie’s “own correspondence with Mr Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations,” according to a statement from Hammer’s attorney Andrew Brettler to EW at the time.
” He also provided an alleged text message exchange between the two and said Hammer made “it clear that he did not want to maintain that type of relationship with her.”
Early in 2021, Hammer found himself in hot water when a number of women accused him of sexual assault and published messages they said the actor had sent regarding BDSM and cannibalistic fantasies. Hammer was thus dumped by his agency and numerous TV and film projects, including the 2022 rom-com Shotgun Wedding and the Godfather series The Offer.
At the time, Hammer labelled the accusations “bullsh–.” The three-part documentary House of Hammer, which examined the accusations and his family background, covered him recently. In an interview with Air Mail earlier this year, he finally broke his silence and admitted that there was a “imbalance of power” between him and the younger women he had sex with.
