New York (AP) – An old model testified in tears on Thursday that Harvey Weinstein Having assaulted him sexually at the age of 16, calling her the most “horrible thing I have ever known” at that time.
Four years later, she said, Weinstein attacked her again.
Kaja (Keye’-Ah) Sokola detailed the allegations in front of a jury for the first time As she testified in Weinstein #Me too new trial. She is the second of the three accusers to testify, and the only one who was not part of Hollywood Honcho’s first trial in 2020.
Weinstein faces a criminal sex accusation based on the last allegation – forcibly performing oral sex on Sokola in a Manhattan hotel in 2006, just before her 20th birthday. The previous alleged assault was beyond the legal deadlines for a potential criminal accusation.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty and denies sexual assault to anyone.
His lawyers should start asking Sokola on Friday. They said that all the accusers of the former film studio boss had agreed to sexual meetings in the hope of advancing their career.
The Sokola, born in Polish, began to model at 14 and quickly stole into the world for photo sessions and fashion shows. But she told the jurors that she was always more interested in acting, so she hoped when she was presented in Weinstein in a New York nightclub in 2002 and he invited her to have a lunch to talk about action.
Instead, he directed him to his Manhattan apartment and told him to remove his clothes, saying that the actors had to be comfortable undressing in the films, she said.
Sokola removed her blouse and followed her in a bathroom because she said: “I was 16 and I was alone with a man for the first time, and I didn’t know what else to do.” She said that she had told Weinstein that she had opposed what was going on, but that he had put her hand in her underwear and made her touch her genitals.
Sokola said that she had seen Weinstein’s eyes – “black and scary” – staring at her in a bathroom mirror as happened. Subsequently, she said, he told her to be silent, saying that he had made Hollywood careers and could help his actor dreams come true.
“I felt stupid and ashamed and as if it was my fault to put myself in this position,” testified Sokola through sobs, bringing a fabric on his face, while the riveted jurors scribbled notes.
Weinstein, 73, looked down by speaking, pressing her left thumb and index against her face like a shield.
Sokola, now 39 years old, has become emotional again while interrogations turned to the 2006 allegation. She said she had stayed in touch with Weinstein because of her acting dreams.
“I never wanted something else of Harvey Weinstein apart from saying honestly if I have a chance to be an actress or not,” said Sokola, who ultimately became a psychotherapist. She swore that she had “absolutely not had a romantic or sexual interest for him.
In 2006, Weinstein arranged so that she was an additional day for a day in the film “The Nanny Diaries”, and he agreed separately to meet Sokola and his older sister on a visit.
After the three, Sokola said, Weinstein told him that he had a script to show him in his hotel room, and she went up with him.
There, she said, Weinstein pushed her on a bed and undressed his boots, stockings, underwear and something indelible.
“My soul was deleted to me,” said Sokola.
She said he had held it while ignoring her pleads of “please don’t, please stop, I don’t want that.” Sokola said she had tried to push him back but was not a match against Weinstein’s physical weight.
She joined her sister but said nothing to have been attacked, said the two brothers and sisters. Sokola said that she didn’t want to tell her sister that Weinstein had treated her with such a lack of respect.
Sokola went to the authorities a few days after Weinstein’s first trial. Prosecutor arrested their investigation After Weinstein was sentenced, but rekindled it when the highest New York Court canceled the verdict last year.
She first detailed the allegation of 2002 in a trial A few years ago, after a choir of public accusations against Weinstein, emerged in 2017 and fueled the #MeToo movement.
Sokola finally received $ 3.5 million in compensation.
Another accuser, Miriam Haley, testified last week That Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006. The third accuser of the case, Jessica Mann, should testify later. She alleged that Weinstein raped her in 2013.
The Associated Press generally does not appoint the accusers of sexual assault without their permission, which Haley, Mann and Sokola have given.
