Armie Hammer Accused of Rape; LAPD Opens Investigation

A woman publicly accused actor Armie Hammer of raping her in 2017 and police confirmed on Thursday that an investigation has been opened.

The woman, who identified herself as Effie, said she began an affair with Hammer in 2016, who was married to Elizabeth Chambers at the time. In a statement given on Thursday, Effie said she was 20 when she began speaking with the actor and the two connected on Facebook.

Effie alleged that Hammer emotionally and physically abused her during their relationship. She said he used “manipulation tactics in order to exert control” over her.

“On April 24th, 2017, Armie Hammer violently raped me for over four hours in Los Angeles, during which he repeatedly slammed my head against a wall, bruising my face,” Effie said. “He also committed other acts of violence against me to which I did not consent. I thought that he was going to kill me.”

Effie said the affair lasted four years and ended last year. She said she “tried to dismiss his actions towards me as a twisted form of love.”

“I couldn’t comprehend and overcome what he had done to me,” Effie said. “Over the years since the assault, on many occasions the invasive flashbacks were so excruciating they made me feel there was no way out but to take my own life. I just wanted the pain to stop.”

Hammer’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, denied the accusations of abuse on Thursday. He did not deny that Hammer and Effie had a relationship.

Brettler issues a statement saying all of Hammer’s relationships “have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”

The statement called Effie’s accusations an “attention seeking and ill-advised legal bid” and that they “will only make it more difficult for real victims of sexual violence to get the justice they deserve.”

Brettler also shared a screenshot of a sexually explicit message Effie sent Hammer, claiming that the interaction refutes Effie’s claims.

Gloria Allred, Effie’s lawyer, refuted Brettler’s statement, saying that just because someone consents to some sexual activity, does not mean they consent to all sexual activity. Allred clarified that sexual partners reserve the right to retract consent.

“It is important to emphasize that even if a sexual partner agrees to certain sexual activity, she still has a right at any point to withdraw her consent,” Allred said. “If she does withdraw her consent and asks her partner to stop for any reason, he is legally and morally obligated to stop. If he does not stop, he is then at risk of committing a crime against her.”

Allred said Effie “has provided her evidence to law enforcement and she encourages others to also provide evidence to them if they believe that their evidence might assist in an investigation of Mr. Hammer.”

“I challenge Armie Hammer to present all, not some, of his communications with Effie to the Los Angeles Police Department and answer all of their questions directly rather than through his lawyers,” Allred said.

The Los Angeles Police Department said an attorney contacted them about assault allegations on Feb. 3. They said an investigation was opened after consulting with the woman who made the allegations. The Operations West Bureau is handling the investigation.

Hammer has been under fire since January when a Twitter user posted screenshots allegedly from Hammer discussing his cannibalistic desires. Since then, he dropped out of the movie Shotgun Wedding, his ex-girlfriend Paige Lorenze has spoken out about their relationship, and his estranged wife, Chambers, has spoken out about the controversy.