Prosecutors will not file criminal charges in actor Terry Crews' groping case because the statute of limitations has expired, according to the Los Angeles city attorney's office.
The "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star, who was among the first high-profile actors to speak up about industry-wide harassment in the nascent days of the #MeToo movement, accused talent agent Adam Venit of groping him during a Hollywood party in February 2016. Emboldened by the far-reaching movement, Crews filed a police report a month after detailing the encounter in a series of tweets.
The Los Angeles district attorney's office, which first reviewed Crews' allegations as a felony case, said that the allegations against Venit were not felonious because there was no skin contact, nor was there restraint involved, the Associated Press reported.
The case was then sent to the Los Angeles city attorney to handle it as a misdemeanor, but "prosecution was declined because the matter was beyond the statute of limitations," city attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan said in a statement to The Times.
The statute in this case was one year, and Crews didn't report the incident until November 2017.
The former NFL star, 49, dropped WME as his talent agency after filing the police report and has also filed a civil lawsuit against Venit and WME.
The talent agency suspended Venit to conduct an investigation of the claims. Lawyers for the agency reportedly called on Crews to undergo a seven-hour mental health exam as a stipulation of the civil suit.
Representatives for Crews did not immediately respond to The Times' requests for comment on Thursday.
