The Los Angeles County district attorney announced on Friday that movie producer David Guillod will not face sexual assault charges due to insufficient evidence to support a case beyond a reasonable doubt. This decision arrives more than four years following Guillod’s initial arrest.
This announcement comes nearly three years after a similar set of charges against Guillod were dismissed by a judge in Santa Barbara County. Attempts to reach a representative for Guillod for comments have gone unanswered; Guillod has consistently denied all allegations against him.
Guillod, known for producing films like “Atomic Blonde” (2017) and “Extraction” (2020), was originally apprehended in 2020 and faced charges of rape and sexual assault involving six women from 2014 to 2020 within Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties. The authorities chose to jointly handle these cases in Santa Barbara County, where, during a 2022 preliminary hearing, a judge ruled insufficient evidence for four of the charges against Guillod. Although the judge found enough evidence to proceed on charges involving an actor in 2012 and a waitress in 2018, these incidents happened in Los Angeles County, hence Santa Barbara prosecutors could not maintain jurisdiction and forwarded the cases to the Los Angeles District Attorney.
Nathan Hochman, the district attorney, provided a statement noting that while the allegations depict deeply concerning behavior, there’s empathy for the accusers who have faced trauma throughout this drawn-out investigation process. Recently, Hochman’s office also refrained from filing charges against musician Marilyn Manson after another long-term investigation.
Guillod was part of a broader investigation by a task force established in 2017 by former District Attorney Jackie Lacey. This task force aimed to tackle cases of sexual misconduct in Hollywood as the #MeToo movement was gaining momentum nationwide. Many cases reviewed by the task force resulted in no charges, except notably in the case of Harvey Weinstein, who was convicted of rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles in 2022, though he is currently appealing his convictions.