Trial Begins for Film Academy Member Facing Eight Counts of Child Molestation Charges

A criminal trial has begun against a Film Academy member facing eight counts of child molestation charges.

Sound mixing studio architect and Film Academy member Jeffrey Cooper’s trial is underway, according to a report by TheWrap.

The 70-year-old Film Academy member was arrested in 2018 by Los Angeles County Special Victims Unit detectives after an investigation into allegations that he had committed lewd acts with two underage girls — one between 2006 and 2007, with the second between 2012 and 2016.

Cooper, who has been an Academy member since 2002, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

“The Academy has been made aware of the alleged abhorrent behavior and will address this matter according to our Standards of Conduct and the due process requirements under California nonprofit corporation law,” the Academy told the Los Angeles Times. “We would have grounds, under our rules, to expel any member convicted of a violent crime.”

During the first day of Cooper’s trial, one of his alleged victims said she had considered the Academy member a “friend” and “mentor” who shared some of her interests. The alleged victim, now 28, said she and Cooper wrote songs together in his basement music studio before he molested her when she was 12 or 13.

“Over a decade later, this still haunts me,” the woman testified. “I should feel empowered but I feel gross. I really try not to think about it. It really knocks me off my feet.”

Cooper’s defense attorney, however, claims the Academy member is being accused by “a family with a rich history of falsifying child molestation claims to leverage them for financial gain.”

The Academy has struggled with members who have been accused of sexual misconduct, with the most notable allegations perhaps being made against now-disgraced Hollywood mogul and former producer Harvey Weinstein, who was kicked out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017.

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