Harvey Weinstein ’s #MeToo retrial opened Wednesday, giving a brand new jury a recent take 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 towards her will 4 years earlier, when she was 16.
Like the 2 different accusers within the case, Sokola alleges a fancy 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 potential for an performing 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 prepared 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, did not take a look at Lucey or the jury throughout her presentation. However Weinstein watched intently as Aidala outlined his protection.
The retrial is occurring as a result of New York’s prime court docket final 12 months threw out Weinstein’s conviction, which in 2020 was a watershed second for the #MeToo motion towards sexual misconduct. The excessive court docket discovered that the earlier trial choose allowed prejudicial testimony about allegations separate from the costs.
Weinstein’s retrial is taking part in out at a unique cultural second than the primary. #MeToo, which exploded in 2017 with allegations towards Weinstein, has developed and ebbed.
When Weinstein’s first trial started, chants of “rapist” may very well be heard from protesters outdoors. This time, there was none of that.
Sokola’s lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, has known 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.”
Harvey Weinstein was again in court docket for the retrial of his sexual assault case that propelled the #MeToo motion into the highlight and led to his 2020 conviction, which was in the end overturned. NBC New York’s Erica Byfield experiences.
A teenage mannequin and a film mannequin
Whereas this jury will not hear concerning the allegations that obtained the primary conviction thrown out, the panel is predicted to listen to from Sokola. After the excessive court docket despatched the case again for retrial, prosecutors added a felony 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, based on prosecutors. She alleges he invited her to lunch to debate potential performing jobs however detoured to his condominium 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 in touch with Weinstein, even after telling him off for allegedly groping her in a automobile round 2004, Lucey advised jurors. She mentioned Weinstein organized for Sokola to be an additional within the 2007 rom-com “The Nanny Diaries,” and she or he 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 lodge 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 mentioned.
Within the weeks after, Sokola was photographed with Weinstein and a 3rd particular person at an occasion, and his firm wrote her an acting-school advice, the prosecutor mentioned. Lucey advised jurors that energy imbalances usually “trigger victims to behave in ways in which laypersons presumably may not count on.”
After different allegations emerged towards Weinstein in 2017, Sokola sued. Prosecutors mentioned she obtained $3.5 million in compensation.
Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein pleaded not responsible on an extra intercourse crimes cost in a New York Metropolis courtroom on Wednesday.
Two of the unique fees stay
Aidala mentioned 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 court docket, Sokola’s legal professional decried Weinstein’s protection as stuffed with “victim blaming” and “rape myths.”
Along with the cost associated to Sokola, Weinstein is being retried on a felony 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 fees 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 status as a Hollywood kingmaker, recalled dropping him off to satisfy Haley in a lodge foyer and remembered seeing her title on a name log.
The Related Press typically doesn’t determine folks alleging sexual assault until they consent to be named, as Haley, Mann and Sokola have carried out.
