Harvey Weinstein could have more problems than just the disappearance of his career.

The police in New York on Friday said that they have developed a strong criminal case against Harvey Weinstein after an actress’s claim that he raped her seven years ago.

Speaking at a news conference at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan, officials in the Police Department said they were gathering evidence with an eye toward preparing a warrant to arrest Mr. Weinstein, whose representatives have said is undergoing therapy outside of New York.

Undergoing therapy, forsooth, as if it were a medical problem as opposed to a moral one. He treated women with contempt, which is all too normal; “therapy” seems like an easy escape.

The claims of the actress, Paz de la Huerta, have been a focus of investigators in the department’s Special Victims Division for several days, since Mr. Weinstein’s long history of sexual harassment of women was detailed in reports by The New York Times and other news organizations early last month. Those reports prompted a mountain of tips to the police in New York and London about other episodes.

A mountain of tips. He’s been a busy busy guy, with his bathrobe and his “massages” and his “come up to my room.”

If Mr. Weinstein had been in the city, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce, said that his investigators would have sought to arrest him immediately. But with him out of the jurisdiction of the New York police, and with seven years having elapsed since the attacks are said to have taken place, the police will instead continue gathering evidence.

“We have an actual case going forward,” Chief Boyce said. “If this person was still in New York and it was recent we would go right away and make the arrest, no doubt. But we’re talking about a seven-year-old case. And we have to move forward gathering evidence.”

The DAs office says they haven’t decided anything yet.

“We are taking it seriously and we are investigating it,” an official with the district attorney’s office said. “We are hoping to build a case. If we can build one, we will build one.”

In general, the Manhattan district attorney’s office will not go forward with a sex crimes prosecution unless prosecutors in its sex crimes unit are absolutely convinced they have enough evidence. This high bar for sex crimes exists largely to avoid subjecting a victim to a humiliating cross-examination that would doom the case and deter other victims from coming forward, prosecutors say.

That is one reason Mr. Vance has said he decided not to prosecute Mr. Weinstein in 2015, when Ambra Battilana, an Italian model, accused him of groping her during a job interview at his office.

Maybe Harvey can proceed with his therapy in peace.