NEW YORK (AP) — A former mannequin reproached one in all Harvey Weinstein ’s legal professionals for suggesting that her sexual abuse allegations towards the ex-studio boss are lies.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Kaja Sokola retorted. In her fifth and ultimate day of testimony at Weinstein’s intercourse crimes retrial, she maintained that she was telling the reality and that Weinstein’s alleged conduct in her teenagers had modified the course of her life.
“It changed the course of your life in that you got $3.5 million from false accusations?” protection lawyer Mike Cibella pressed, referring to compensation she was awarded by means of civil proceedings lately.
“No. That’s very unfair,” Sokola said softly. “That’s not true.”
Throughout her days on the witness stand, she mentioned Weinstein repeatedly supplied to foster her performing ambitions however then made undesirable bodily advances, starting when she was 16 in 2002.
Weinstein, 73, faces a sexual assault cost associated solely to her allegation that he pressured oral intercourse on her when she was 19. He additionally faces fees based mostly on two different ladies’s claims. He has pleaded not responsible to all the costs, and his attorneys assert that his accusers had consensual sexual encounters with the Oscar-winning producer as a result of they needed film and TV work.
Weinstein’s legal professionals grilled Sokola about her requests for profession assist from him after the alleged assault, her motives for her civil lawsuits and prison trial testimony, in addition to her private struggles, and even a personal journal she saved for an alcohol-abuse program in her native Poland.
After apparently getting the decade-old writings by way of the witness’ sister, the protection was allowed to deliver up parts wherein Sokola mentioned two different males had sexually assaulted her through the years however did not say the identical about Weinstein. As a substitute, she wrote that he promised her assist however did not ship.
Sokola testified Wednesday that she had ignored Weinstein’s alleged sexual abuse partly as a result of she could not come to phrases with it on the time. Additionally, she mentioned, her sponsor was within the movie enterprise in Poland and knew who Weinstein was.
Cibella questioned that clarification, noting that the textual content talked about solely “Harvey W” and nothing about his career. Sokola mentioned her sponsor nonetheless knew his id as a result of they talked about it.
Tearing up as she spoke, she mentioned she hadn’t seen the black pocket book for 10 years, by no means gave anybody permission to share it and was shocked and appalled to be confronted with it in courtroom.
“I felt very violated,” mentioned Sokola, now 39 and a psychotherapist.
She was the second of Weinstein’s accusers to testify on the retrial, and the one one who wasn’t concerned in his first trial in 2020. That continuing led to a landmark #MeToo-era conviction that was subsequently overturned, establishing the retrial. Prosecutors determined so as to add Sokola’s allegations to it.
One other girl, Miriam Haley, already has instructed jurors on the retrial that Weinstein forcibly carried out oral intercourse on her in 2006. The third accuser, Jessica Mann, is anticipated to testify within the coming days or perhaps weeks. She alleges that Weinstein raped her in 2013.
The Related Press typically doesn’t title individuals who allege they’ve been sexually assaulted until they provide permission to be recognized. Haley, Mann and Sokola have achieved so.
