Kaja Sokola, the new accuser of the criminal trial of Harvey Weinstein, tore the stand on Thursday by saying that her “soul had been deleted” when the former studio magnate would have forced oral sex on her during a hotel chamber meeting in 2006.
Sokola is one of the three witnesses who complain about the new trial against Weinstein. Unlike the other two witnesses, Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann, Sokola did not testify during the last trial of Weinstein. His conviction in 2020 was canceled in April 2024 when the Court of Appeal judged that the trial judge wrongly authorized the testimonies of other women on allegations not loaded against Weinstein.
Sokola’s name was made public for the first time as part of this case during the opening declarations of the new trial on April 23. However, it has already been involved in civil disputes against Weinstein’s brother, Bob Weinstein, Disney and Miramax in 2019, and then won a settlement of $ 3 million in 2002 when it was 16.
The former Polish model and actress testified that she had met Weinstein for the first time in 2002. Her goal by meeting was to go to an acting career, after working as a model in the United States and abroad. At one point, Sokola obtained an additional job Nanny newspapers through Weinstein.
“I never really wanted anything else from Harvey Weinstein other than honestly saying whether I had a chance to be an actress or not,” said Sokola, who testified that she had never had any romantic or sexual interest for him.
The interaction loaded with Weinstein would have taken place in 2006, after a lunch with Weinstein and Sokola’s sister at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. Sokola, who was 19, said that she had organized the meeting because she wanted her sister to meet Weinstein so that she could prove to her that she had a possible career as an actor. After a brief lunch, Sokola said that Weinstein asked him to come to a hotel room to see a scenario, then held her on the bed, removed her stockings and underwear and made oral sex on her.
“I continued to say” please don’t do it. Please stop.
After the alleged incident, Sokola testified that “he said to me” Do you see? ”
Sokola’s sister Ewa Sokola, was also on the stand on Wednesday and testified to lunch with Weinstein and the departure of her sister with Weinstein. She said that she had noticed “extreme tensions” in her sister, on her return after getting upstairs with Weinstein, but that lunch was otherwise friendly and that their day went as planned. She has not heard of the alleged sexual incident involving her sister until she was reported in 2022 Roller article.
When he was asked why she hadn’t said to her sister, Kaja Sokola said that she had “blamed herself” and did not want to share what had happened after saying to Ewa that Weinstein was someone who had confidence and who could help her career.
“I really cared about the approval of my sister and my mother. I couldn’t tell them,” said Sokola on the stand on Thursday. The two had participated in a model competition at the age of 14, she said.
Earlier in the day Thursday, Sokola testified to the alleged sexual meeting with Weinstein who had occurred at the age of 16 during his first visit to New York. After meeting Weinstein for the first time at the Butter restaurant, where Weinstein asked if she was an actress, Sokola gave her her number. He called a few days later, came to pick her up in his car and testified that she had told her that she was 16 years old.
Rather than taking her to a restaurant for lunch, as expected, Sokola said that the driver had brought them to Weinstein’s apartment where she followed her in her room and then the bathroom, where he hit his vagina and put his hand on his penis to masturbate.
“He told me to remove my clothes and I didn’t want to do this. I was panicking. And then he said that if I wanted to be an actress, that’s what the actors do in the movies,” said Sokola, tearing himself off on the stand. “So I should get used to it.”
“I was afraid. I was afraid of him, ”she continued, saying she was following him because she was 16 and did not know what to do. “I had never been in an intimate situation with another person like that.”
With this incident, as well as another allegation of trial and error of years later, judge Curtis Farber read in the jury a stipulation on the way in which the incidents were not conducted of criminal conduct and were only proposed as proof of consideration as basic information on the relationship between the two parties, rather than a propensity or a predisposition to commit a crime. This occurs when prosecutors are sailing in the Molinine rule, which generally prohibits the evidence of the poor behavior of a defendant to prove their propensity to commit the accusations in question and contributed to the conviction for the condemn of Weinstein.
In addition to the criminal sexual accusation linked to Sokola, Weinstein is being referenced on a criminal sexual accusation and a rape accusation linked to the respective allegations of the former production assistant on Project trackMiriam Haley, who alleges that he forced her oral sex in her apartment in 2006, and as grass actress Jessica Mann, who alleged that she was raped by Weinstein in 2013 in a Manhattan hotel.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty to all accusations. He looked at Sokola on the stand while he was sitting at the defense table, in a wheelchair, with his lawyers.
Haley was on the stand last week and testified that she had tried to stop Weinstein when he had also forced her to come across her bed and played oral sex after she accepted her invitation to a first of a film at the
Haley and Sokola stayed in touch with Weinstein after the busy incidents, emails showing withdrawals from their potential entertainment projects. Sokola specifically contacted Weinstein about a film project and a member of his team to obtain an agent as an actor.
Years after the alleged incident, Sokola became a psychotherapist working in Poland, then moved to New York, where she is under a visa and is currently looking for asylum after fled her husband. She added that she continued to fight against the abuse of alcohol that started when she was a teenager.
In addition to the civil dispute linked to the 2002 incident, she also participated in the Weinstein regulation fund linked to the 2006 incident and obtained $ 475,000. However, it is the first time that she testifies in criminal procedures, which she said that she did for her son.
“I have a grandson and I am a single mother. I raise it by myself. What happened to me when I was a child myself, I never really looked at him in the right way until I have my son. I want to show him power, strength and resilience, Sokola said. “I want you to lift yourself up.
