By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ, Related Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ’s #MeToo retrial opened Wednesday, giving a brand new jury a recent have a look at acquainted rape and sexual assault allegations — plus a newly added declare from a former mannequin.
For the primary time, prosecutors publicly recognized Kaja Sokola and detailed her account of what unfolded between her and the Oscar-winning film producer within the early 2000s. He’s criminally charged with forcing oral intercourse on her in 2006, however she additionally accused him in a civil lawsuit of groping her in opposition to her will 4 years earlier, when she was 16.
Like the 2 different accusers within the case, Sokola alleges a posh collection of encounters and reactions — being sexually assaulted, but staying in contact, cautious of Weinstein however wanting to stay on good phrases with an influence dealer who dangled the opportunity of an appearing profession.
“Why did the defendant hold this level of power and control in the eyes of these three women? … It’s because Harvey Weinstein defined the field,” prosecutor Shannon Lucey advised jurors in a gap assertion. “He knew how tempting promises of success were. He produced, he choreographed, he therefore directed, their ultimate silence for years.”
Weinstein has pleaded not responsible, and protection lawyer Arthur Aidala countered by portraying the accusers as keen companions in a showbiz quid professional quo.
“The casting couch is not a crime scene,” Aidala advised the majority-female jury. He in contrast prosecutors’ allegations to the preview of a film that “falls flat on its face.”
A reversal and a retrial
The 73-year-old Weinstein, seated within the wheelchair he now makes use of due to well being issues, didn’t have a look at Lucey or the jury throughout her presentation. However Weinstein watched intently as Aidala outlined his protection.
The retrial is going on as a result of New York’s high courtroom final yr threw out Weinstein’s conviction, which in 2020 was a watershed second for the #MeToo motion in opposition to sexual misconduct. The excessive courtroom discovered that the earlier trial decide allowed prejudicial testimony about allegations separate from the costs.
Weinstein’s retrial is enjoying out at a distinct cultural second than the primary. #MeToo, which exploded in 2017 with allegations in opposition to Weinstein, has advanced and ebbed.
When Weinstein’s first trial started, chants of “rapist” might be heard from protesters exterior. This time, there was none of that.
Sokola’s lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, has referred to as Weinstein’s retrial a “signal to other survivors that the system is catching up — and that it’s worth speaking out even when the odds seem insurmountable.”
A teenage mannequin and a film mannequin
Whereas this jury received’t hear in regards to the allegations that acquired the primary conviction thrown out, the panel is predicted to listen to from Sokola. After the excessive courtroom despatched the case again for retrial, prosecutors added a legal intercourse act cost based mostly on her allegations.
The Polish-born Sokola met Weinstein in 2002 after touring alone to New York for a modeling journey at age 16, in accordance with prosecutors. She alleges he invited her to lunch to debate potential appearing jobs however detoured to his residence and demanded she take off her shirt if she needed to make it within the film enterprise. Then, Sokola alleges, Weinstein fondled her whereas making her contact his genitals.
Over the subsequent few years, Sokola stayed involved with Weinstein, even after telling him off for allegedly groping her in a automotive round 2004, Lucey advised jurors. She stated Weinstein organized for Sokola to be an additional within the 2007 rom-com “The Nanny Diaries,” and he or she invited him to lunch to impress her visiting sister.
After the lunch, he requested Sokola to take a look at some scripts in his Manhattan resort room, ordered her to undress, held her down on a mattress, and carried out oral intercourse on her whereas she tearfully implored him not to take action, Lucey stated.
Within the weeks after, Sokola was photographed with Weinstein and a 3rd individual at an occasion, and his firm wrote her an acting-school advice, the prosecutor stated. Lucey advised jurors that energy imbalances typically “cause victims to behave in ways that laypersons possibly might not expect.”
After different allegations emerged in opposition to Weinstein in 2017, Sokola sued. Prosecutors stated she acquired $3.5 million in compensation.
Two of the unique expenses stay
Aidala stated the accusers have been “trying to take advantage of Mr. Weinstein when he was at the top,” then benefited from making allegations amid his downfall.
Exterior courtroom, Sokola’s lawyer decried Weinstein’s protection as filled with “victim blaming” and “rape myths.”
Along with the cost associated to Sokola, Weinstein is being retried on a legal intercourse act cost for allegedly forcibly performing oral intercourse on then-production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, and a third-degree rape cost for allegedly assaulting then-aspiring actor Jessica Mann in 2013.
Weinstein’s 2020 acquittals on predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape expenses nonetheless stand.
After the attorneys’ statements, testimony began Wednesday with particulars of Weinstein’s high-flying workdays round 2006. Witness Stefan Sterns — who was then certainly one of Weinstein’s assistants — expounded on the producer’s fame as a Hollywood kingmaker, recalled dropping him off to fulfill Haley in a resort foyer and remembered seeing her title on a name log.
The Related Press usually doesn’t establish folks alleging sexual assault until they consent to be named, as Haley, Mann and Sokola have carried out.
Initially Printed: April 23, 2025 at 8:25 AM EDT
