Former model Kaja Sokola testified Wednesday against Harvey Weinstein in New York, becoming the 14th woman to take the stand in a criminal court to accuse the disgraced movie mogul of sexual assault.
Sokola was sworn in at the Manhattan courtroom and began to tell her story to the jury, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. She had been in communication with prosecutors during his 2020 trial, but was not called to testify at the time, when six other women – two of whom spoke only to “prior bad acts” – took the stand.
By the time Weinstein was convicted in that trial, prosecutors were still investigating Sokola’s claims, and she was not included. But that conviction was overturned – in part because of the inclusion of “prior bad acts” witnesses – and the case was sent back for retrial.
This time, it was with Sokola’s ordeal as a charged crime. Sokola, now 39 and a psychotherapist who says she just launched a film production company, only began to tell her story of meeting Weinstein on Wednesday, though she is expected to return Thursday to pick up where she had left off and will later face cross-examination.
Prosecutors outlined her story in the opening arguments, however, saying the Polish model was only 16 when Weinstein forced oral sex on her in his Manhattan hotel room in 2002 – making her the youngest victim at the time of the alleged assault to go on record.
She sued Weinstein in 2017 after the #MeToo movement was in full swing. Prosecutors say Sokola received $3.5 million in compensation for that civil action.
Weinstein, now 73, has pleaded not guilty, arguing that his accusers consented to sexual encounters in exchange for movie and TV opportunities.
Sokola said during the trial that she agreed to try modeling at age 14, but only as a bridge to acting and writing. Her civil lawsuit filings say that shortly after she met Weinstein in 2002, he invited her to lunch to discuss her career and sexually assaulted her – then sexually harassed and emotionally abused her for years.
The criminal charge is from a 2006 incident, when she says Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel after Weinstein arranged for her to be an extra “The Nanny Diaries” and agreed to meet her visiting older sister.
The sister, Ewa Sokola, testified Wednesday that her younger sibling was proud to know Weinstein, and was there when the three met in a hotel lobby. She said her younger sister and Weinstein left the table for about a half-hour, and that Kaja was tense when she returned — but didn’t say anything about an assault at the time, only to be “shocked” to read about the allegation years later in a magazine.
Seven women testified against Weinstein in his Los Angeles trial, which ended in a conviction and is pending appeal.
