Los Angeles D.A. Declines To Charge Benny Medina For Alleged 2004 Sexual Assault

Benny Medina, the TV producer and music manager whose clients include Jennifer Lopez and formerly Will Smith and Mariah Carey, will not be charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney in an alleged 2004 sexual assault.

The case was declined by the L.A. D.A.’s entertainment sexual assault task force Friday owing to the statue of limitations, according to the charge evaluation worksheet, and that the unnamed alleged victim recently died. No other information was given in the report.

This is a different incident from one that came to light in November, when Sordid Lives: The Series actor Jason Dottley claimed in a story published in The Advocate that Medina attempted to rape him in 2008 at the producer-manager’s Los Angeles mansion. Medina, through his lawyers, denied the allegation.

Medina, who continues to work with Lopez, executive produced Smith’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and The Tyra Banks Show, and more recently the Freeform series The Fosters and NBC’s just-ended Lopez-starring Shades of Blue. He is still slated to executive produce NBC’s production Bye Bye Birdie Live! starring Lopez, which has been pushed into 2019.

The Los Angeles District Attorney formed the task force in November in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The unit has yet to prosecute anyone, declining numerous cases due to a lack of evidence and/or citing the statute of limitations.