NEW YORK — An actress’s rape allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein are credible, and investigators are gathering evidence for a criminal case, New York police said Friday.

Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Friday that investigators have interviewed actress Paz de la Huerta, who publicly accused Weinstein of raping her twice in her apartment in 2010.

Boyce said detectives found the ‘‘Boardwalk Empire’’ actress’ story believable and corroborated portions of her account.

She called police on Oct. 26, he said.

The factors that made her story credible included: ‘‘The ability to articulate each and every minute of the crime, where she was, where they met, where this happened and what he did,’’ he said.

An e-mail message sent to Weinstein representative Sallie Hofmeister was not immediately returned.

De la Huerta told CBS News that the first rape occurred in October 2010 after Weinstein gave her a ride home from a party, insisted on having a drink in her apartment and forced himself on her.

She said the second rape occurred in December 2010 after Weinstein came to her apartment. She had been drinking and was not in a condition to give consent, CBS reported the actress said.

Speaking at a police briefing, Boyce said of Weinstein: ‘‘If this person was still in New York, and it was recent, we'd go right away and make the arrest. No doubt. But we’re talking about a 7-year-old case. And we have to move forward gathering evidence first.’’

Investigators could seek an arrest warrant, which requires a court order, or hand the evidence over to prosecutors to put the allegations to a grand jury to seek an indictment.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said a senior prosecutor has been assigned to investigate allegations but didn’t comment further.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they speak publicly, which de la Huerta has done.

The investigation comes a month after The New York Times published an expose of sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein, leading to his firing from the company he cofounded and his expulsion from the organization that bestows the Academy Awards.

In a separate development, one current and three former female lawmakers said they have been harassed or subjected to hostile sexual comments — by fellow members of Congress.

For years, Republican Representative Mary Bono endured the increasingly suggestive comments from a fellow lawmaker in the House. But when the representative approached her on the House floor and told her he’d been thinking about her in the shower, she’d had enough.

She confronted the man, who she said still serves in Congress, telling him his comments were demeaning and wrong. And he backed off.

Bono who served 15 years before being defeated in 2012.

The incidents cited by Bono and the other current or former lawmakers occurred years or even decades ago, usually when the women were young newcomers to Congress. They include isolated comments at one hearing, to repeated unwanted come-ons, to lewd remarks, and even groping on the House floor.

‘‘This is about power,’’ said former California Senator Barbara Boxer, after describing an incident at a hearing in the 1980s where a male colleague made a sexually suggestive comment.

The colleague, using the traditional congressional parlance, said he wanted to ‘‘associate’’ himself with her remarks — adding afterward that he also wanted to ‘‘associate with the gentle lady.’’

Boxer said the comment was met with general laughter and an approving second from the committee chairman. She said she later asked that it be removed from the record.

‘‘That was an example of the way I think we were thought of, a lot of us. ... It’s hostile and embarrasses,’’ she said.

Representative Linda Sanchez, a Democrat from California,said she was harassed when she was a new member of Congress.