The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is not moving forward with rape charges against Armie Hammer after the actor underwent a two-year investigation for sexual assault.
“Sexual assault cases are often difficult to prove, which is why we assign our most experienced prosecutors to review them. In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review, but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime,” Tiffiny Blacknell, Director of Communications for DA George Gascon, told Entertainment Tonight in a statement on Wednesday, May 31. “As prosecutors, we have an ethical responsibility to only charge cases that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The statement claimed that the DA’s office has an “ethical responsibility” to only issue charges when the crimes can be proved “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“We know that it is hard for women to report sexual assault,” the statement continued. “Even when we cannot move forward with a prosecution, our victim service representatives will be available to those who seek our victim support services.”
Following Wednesday’s announcement, Hammer — who shares kids Grace, 8, and Ford Douglas Armand, 6, with ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers — took to social media to praise the Los Angeles DA for their “thorough investigation,” adding that he has “stood by this entire time, that no crime was committed.”
“I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life together now that my name is cleared,” he concluded his Instagram statement.
The Los Angeles police department initially launched an investigation against the Call My By Your Name actor in March 2021 when a woman named Effie Angelova claimed that she was victimized by Hammer in April 2017.
Angelova, 24, previously spoke out about her alleged sexual relationship with the Social Network star during a press conference in March 2021, claiming the pair were intimate on and off from 2016 to 2020 after meeting via Facebook.
According to Angelova, who met Hammer when she was 20, their relationship “progressed rapidly” and “emotions from both sides became really intense.”
“Looking back, it is now clear to me he was employing manipulation tactics in order to exert control over me until I started to lose myself. [He] would often test my devotion to him, crossing my boundaries as he became increasingly more violent used me mentally, emotionally, sexually.”
Angelova claimed that the Death of the Nile star “abused me mentally, emotionally, sexually,” pointing to an alleged incident in L.A. in 2017 where she alleged, “Armie Hammer violently raped me for over four hours.”
She also claimed that he “committed other acts of violence against me, to which I did not consent,” including beating her feet with a crop and slamming her head against the wall.
“During those four hours, I tried to get away,” she explained. “I found out that he was going to kill me. He then left with no concern for my well-being.”
Angelova’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said at the time that her client “does have evidence which she believes supports her serious allegations” and that they have presented it to the Los Angeles Police Department. She added: “We do think that is important that an investigation of these serious allegations is conducted.”
Hammer, for his part, denied the allegations, with his lawyer telling Us Weekly in a lengthy statement that Angelova’s “own correspondence with Mr. Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations.”
“As recently as July 18, 2020, Ms. Angelova sent graphic texts to Mr. Hammer telling him what she wanted him to do to her. Mr. Hammer responded making it clear that he did not want to maintain that type of relationship with her,” his attorney told Us. “It was never Mr. Hammer’s intention to embarrass or expose Ms. Angelova’s fetishes or kinky sexual desires, but she has now escalated this matter to another level by hiring a civil lawyer to host a public press conference.”
The statement continued: “With the truth on his side, Mr. Hammer welcomes the opportunity to set the record straight. From day one, Mr. Hammer has maintained that all of his interactions with Ms. Angelova — and every other sexual partner of his for that matter — have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory. Ms. Angelova’s attention-seeking and ill-advised legal bid will only make it more difficult for real victims of sexual violence to get the justice they deserve.”
