New York – Days in Harvey Weinstein The first trial of sexual assault in 2020, prosecutors spoke privately for the first time with a former model that alleged that he had forced oral sex.
But that jury was never informed about Kaja’s statement (Keye’-Ah) Sokola. Prosecutors have said that they were still investigating the accusation when Weinstein, a movie tycoon at the time, turned into #Metoo PariahHe was sentenced in February 2020 for charges based on the accusations of other women.
On Wednesday, Sokola began to tell a new jury.
Sokola didn’t look at Weinstein as she passed him and entered the witness post in a room in the Manhattan room where Is in trial. A Court of Appeals revoked its 2020 Violation and sexual aggression statussending those return positions to judge again, and prosecutors subsequently added Another position of sexual assault Based on the accusations of Sokola.
When she began to testify about her life before the alleged assault of 2006, Weinstein looked towards her, with her right hand on her mouth.
Weinstein, 73, declared himself innocent of all charges. His lawyers argue that his accusers agreed in sexual encounters with him in the hope of obtaining film and television opportunities, and the defense has emphasized that women remained in contact with him for a while after the alleged assaults.
Meanwhile, women say that an Oscar -winning producer used the possibility of exhibiting business work to take advantage of them.
The Sokola born in Polish, 39, He demanded Weinstein After the industry whispers on their behavior towards women, it became a choir of public accusations in 2017, feeding the #MeToo movement and its request for responsibility for inappropriate sexual behavior. Prosecutors have said that Sokola finally received $ 3.5 million in compensation.
She was presented to Weinstein while on a modeling trip to New York in 2002, when she was 16, according to prosecutors.
In her demands, Sokola said that shortly after meeting Weinstein, she invited her to lunch to discuss her career, but then sexually assaulted her. The demands alleged that he harassed her sexually and abused emotionally for years later.
The criminal position comes from an instance when Sokola argues that Weinstein made oral sex at a Manhattan hotel in May 2006.
The prosecutors have said it happened after Weinstein arranged that Sokola was an extra in the movie “The Nanny Diaries” and met his older sister visitor, whom he was trying to impress.
“I was proud to meet him,” his sister, the cardiologist Dr. Ewa (pronounced eh’ -va) sokola, on Wednesday, told jurores.
She said that the three met in the lobby of a hotel, talked for about an hour about Italian films and Weinstein’s heart, and then he and the model left the table together.
Kaja Sokola was tense when he returned approximately half an hour later, “as someone waiting for the result of an exam” or the Oscars, but said nothing about the alleged sexual assault, Dr. Sokola said to the jurors.
She said she was surprised to know about the claim more than a decade later, when she read it in a magazine article.
Weinstein’s lawyers will have the opportunity to question Kaja Sokola in the next few days. In an opening statement last month, defense lawyer Arthur Aidala questioned why he waited for years to appear. Prosecutors have argued that the accusers were reluctant to speak due to Weinstein’s wealth and influence.
Prosecutors have said that Sokola’s lawyers contacted them on the eve of Weinstein’s first trial to say he was willing to be interviewed. Prosecutors have said they soon talked to her and began investigating, but Initially I did not persecute charges because Weinstein was convicted and the coronavirus pandemic was coming.
They relived Sokola’s investigation after the highest court in New York reversed Weinstein’s conviction.
Weinstein’s lawyers He fought without success To maintain the accusation of Sokola out of trial. They accused the prosecutors of “smuggling an additional position in the case with the inappropriate purpose of strengthening the credibility” of other accusers.
One of the others, Miriam Haley, Testified last week that Weinstein forced oral sex in 2006. The third accuser in the case, Jessica Mann, is expected to testify later.
Associated Press generally does not appoint accusers of sexual aggression without their permission, that Haley, Mann and Sokola have given.
