New York (AFP) – A Polish model testified Wednesday against fallen film mogul Harvey Weinstein in his retrial on sex assault charges, the first time the woman claiming the former Miramax boss forced oral sex on her has been heard in criminal court. Kaja Sokola, 39, alleges that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in spring 2006 in a Manhattan hotel, claims the former cinema scion denies.
While the other accusers in the New York case — onetime production assistant Miriam Haley and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann — testified at Weinstein’s original trial, Sokola is being heard for the first time. The accounts of the other two women helped galvanize the #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago, but the case is being re-prosecuted as Weinstein faces a new trial in New York.
Weinstein’s 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and Mann were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful. The former Miramax studio boss is charged in the New York retrial with the 2006 sexual assault of Haley and the 2013 rape of Mann, as well as the assault on Sokola.
He was in court Wednesday, pushed to the defense bench in a wheelchair to which he was handcuffed until he was unshackled by one of the two court officers guarding him. He leaned back in his chair as Sokola entered the courtroom and swore an oath, listening intently to her recall her experience, which was not shared with the jury at his initial trial in 2020.
Prosecutor Shannon Lucey walked Sokola through her education and first forays into modeling, showing the court several shots of her as a teen adorning magazine spreads, before touching on how she came to New York in 2002 to work. Her testimony will continue Thursday.
Weinstein — the producer of box office hits such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” — has never acknowledged any wrongdoing. He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.
© 2024 AFP
