Harvey Weinstein accused of sexually assaulting former teen model as rape retrial begins

NEW YORK (AP) — Opening statements in Harvey Weinstein ’s #MeToo rape retrial began Wednesday with a prosecutor telling jurors about the three allegations at issue in the case, including one involving a woman who wasn’t part of the original trial in 2020.

Kaja Sokola, a former model from Poland, alleges that Weinstein, once one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures, pinned her to a bed and forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006 after luring her to his Manhattan hotel room with the promise of movie scripts. Four years earlier, Sokola alleges, he molested her at his apartment when she was just 16, Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey told jurors.

Weinstein, 73, is charged in connection with the 2006 allegation, but not the earlier one. Sokola previously sued over her allegations and was paid $3.5 million in settlements and compensation, Lucey said.

It’s the first time Manhattan prosecutors have detailed Sokola’s allegations, which were added to the case after New York’s highest court last year overturned Weinstein’s conviction. The rest of the retrial pertains to allegations from two women who were part of the original trial — Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann.

The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley, Mann and Sokola have done.

Emphasizing Weinstein’s onetime influence in the movie industry, Lucey said the ex-studio boss used “dream opportunities as weapons” to prey on women. He is charged with raping Mann and forcing oral sex on Haley and Sokola.

“The defendant wanted their bodies, and the more they resisted, the more forceful he got,” Lucey said.

Weinstein, she said, “held the golden ticket: a chance to make it, or not.”

The Oscar-winning producer, seated in the wheelchair he now uses because of health problems, whispered with one of his lawyers and appeared to take notes as Lucey described his alleged crimes, but he didn’t look at the jury.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone. His attorneys haven’t yet had their turn to address jurors.

The audience in the packed courtroom included Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He inherited the landmark #MeToo case, brought by his predecessor, when the Court of Appeals last year threw out the 2020 conviction and 23-year prison sentence because the judge allowed testimony about allegations Weinstein was not charged with. The reversal led to the retrial.

Weinstein’s retrial is playing out at a different cultural moment than the first. #MeToo, which exploded in 2017 with allegations against Weinstein, has also evolved and ebbed.

The jury counts seven women and five men — unlike the seven-man, five-woman panel that convicted him in 2020 — and there’s a different judge.

At the start of Weinstein’s first trial, chants of “rapist” could be heard from protesters outside. This time, there was none of that.

Weinstein is being retried on a criminal sex act charge for allegedly forcibly performing oral sex on Haley, a movie and TV production assistant at the time, in 2006, and a third-degree rape charge for allegedly assaulting Mann, a then-aspiring actor, in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

Weinstein also faces a criminal sex act charge for allegedly forcing oral sex on Sokola, also in 2006. Prosecutors said she came forward days before his first trial but wasn’t part of that case. They said they revisited her allegations when his conviction was thrown out.

Weinstein’s acquittals on the two most serious charges at his 2020 trial — predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape — still stand.

Lindsay Goldbrum, a lawyer for the unnamed accuser, said Weinstein’s retrial marks a “pivotal moment in the fight for accountability in sex abuse cases” and a “signal to other survivors that the system is catching up — and that it’s worth speaking out even when the odds seem insurmountable.”

This time around, the Manhattan district attorney’s office is prosecuting Weinstein through its Special Victims Division, which specializes in such cases, after homicide veterans helmed the 2020 version. At the same time, Weinstein has added several lawyers to his defense team — including Jennifer Bonjean, who is involved in appealing his 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles. She helped Bill Cosby get his conviction overturned and defended R. Kelly in his sex crimes case.

“This trial is not going to be all about #MeToo. It’s going to be about the facts of what took place,” Weinstein’s lead attorney, Arthur Aidala, said recently. “And that’s a big deal. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

But there has already been some talk of #MeToo. A prosecutor asked prospective jurors whether they’d heard of the movement. Most said they had, but that it wouldn’t affect them either way.

Those who indicated it might were excused.