The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that it would not file charges against Armie Hammer, bringing to an end an “extremely thorough” investigation that began in 2021.
“Sexual assault cases are often difficult to prove, which is why we assign our most experienced prosecutors to review them,” a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said in a statement first reported by Variety.
“In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review,” she continued, “but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime.”
The spokesperson said that investigators felt they would be unable to prove the assault allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, citing as one reason the “complexity of the relationship” between Hammer and his accuser.
Hammer’s accuser reported him to the Los Angeles Police Department in February 2021, claiming he’d been physically abusive to her during a spasmodic four-year relationship, and that he’d raped her in 2017.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” the woman, Effie Angelova, said in a March 2021 press conference.
Hours earlier on Wednesday, Angelova had taken to social media to announce it was her birthday. On her Instagram Story, she wrote about her expectations for the day and how it had actually played out.
“Expectation: Ponies! Balloons! A new chapter in life!” she wrote. “How it’s actually going: law enforcement, talking to lawyers about the atrocious harassment I’ve been getting the past weeks, got invited to give a speech at a university.”
“No ponies, plenty of fun balloons though. What I most want to do: sleep. I just want sleep.”
After the district attorney’s decision was announced, Angelova told Page Six she was “disappointed” with the outcome of the investigation.
In a statement, she said she had “felt a duty to speak out and file a report in order to try to hold Armie accountable for all the harm and trauma he has caused me and in order to protect other women from experiencing similar abuse.”
Noting that it had cost her “a great deal” to come forward, she added that her hope remained “that one day, rapists won’t get away with it.”
Angelova’s police report came after she publicly but anonymously accused him of misconduct on Instagram. Several other women subsequently came forward with similar claims. The actor was quickly dropped by his representatives and departed a number of projects he’d had lined up, including a Broadway play, several movies, and a streaming series based on the making of The Godfather.
Hammer has repeatedly denied the allegations, including in a notorious profile published by Air Mail earlier this year.
Speaking to the outlet, the 36-year-old actor admitted that he had acted like “an asshole” to Angelova and his other accusers, and that the “power dynamics were off” in their relationships.
It was “one million percent” accurate to say he’d been emotionally abusive, according to Hammer, but he insisted that every encounter he’d had had been consensual.
“Every single thing was discussed beforehand,” he said. “I have never thrust this on someone unexpectedly. Never.”
He also told Air Mail that he’d attempted suicide after his fall from grace, something Angelova blasted as “manipulative” in a response. On her Instagram Story, she accused him of deploying the anecdote as a means of garnering sympathy.
In a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday, Hammer said, “I am very grateful to the District Attorney for conducting a thorough investigation and coming to the conclusion that I have 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 back together now that my name is cleared.”
“I would like to say a very special thank you to all of the people who have helped me get through this time,” he added. “Onwards and upwards.”
