NEW YORK (AP) — Opening statements in Harvey Weinstein ’s #MeToo rape retrial started Wednesday with a prosecutor telling jurors in regards to the three allegations at challenge within the case, together with one involving a lady who wasn’t a part of the unique trial in 2020.
Kaja Sokola, a former mannequin from Poland, alleges that Weinstein, as soon as certainly one of Hollywood’s strongest figures, pinned her to a mattress and forcibly carried out oral intercourse on her in 2006 after luring her to his Manhattan lodge room with the promise of film scripts. 4 years earlier, Sokola alleges, he molested her at his condo when she was simply 16, Assistant District Legal professional Shannon Lucey instructed jurors.
Weinstein, 73, is charged in reference to the 2006 allegation, however not the sooner one. Sokola beforehand sued over her allegations and was paid $3.5 million in settlements and compensation, Lucey mentioned.
It’s the primary time Manhattan prosecutors have detailed Sokola’s allegations, which had been added to the case after New York’s highest court docket final yr overturned Weinstein’s conviction. The remainder of the retrial pertains to allegations from two ladies who had been a part of the unique trial — Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann.
The Related Press doesn’t usually determine individuals alleging sexual assault except they consent to be named, as Haley, Mann and Sokola have finished.
Emphasizing Weinstein’s onetime affect within the film business, Lucey mentioned the ex-studio boss used “dream alternatives as weapons” to prey on ladies. He’s charged with raping Mann and forcing oral intercourse on Haley and Sokola.
“The defendant wished their our bodies, and the extra they resisted, the extra forceful he bought,” Lucey mentioned.
Weinstein, she mentioned, “held the golden ticket: an opportunity to make it, or not.”
The Oscar-winning producer, seated within the wheelchair he now makes use of due to well being issues, whispered with certainly one of his legal professionals and appeared to take notes as Lucey described his alleged crimes, however he didn’t have a look at the jury.
Weinstein has pleaded not responsible and denies raping or sexually assaulting anybody. His attorneys haven’t but had their flip to handle jurors.
The viewers within the packed courtroom included Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg. He inherited the landmark #MeToo case, introduced by his predecessor, when the Courtroom of Appeals final yr threw out the 2020 conviction and 23-year jail sentence as a result of the decide allowed testimony about allegations Weinstein was not charged with. The reversal led to the retrial.
Weinstein’s retrial is enjoying out at a distinct cultural second than the primary. #MeToo, which exploded in 2017 with allegations towards Weinstein, has additionally advanced and ebbed.
The jury counts seven ladies and 5 males — in contrast to the seven-man, five-woman panel that convicted him in 2020 — and there’s a distinct decide.
In the beginning of Weinstein’s first trial, chants of “rapist” could possibly be heard from protesters exterior. This time, there was none of that.
Weinstein is being retried on a legal intercourse act cost for allegedly forcibly performing oral intercourse on Haley, a film and TV manufacturing assistant on the time, in 2006, and a third-degree rape cost for allegedly assaulting Mann, a then-aspiring actor, in a Manhattan lodge room in 2013.
Weinstein additionally faces a legal intercourse act cost for allegedly forcing oral intercourse on Sokola, additionally in 2006. Prosecutors mentioned she got here ahead days earlier than his first trial however wasn’t a part of that case. They mentioned they revisited her allegations when his conviction was thrown out.
Weinstein’s acquittals on the 2 most severe fees at his 2020 trial — predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape — nonetheless stand.
Lindsay Goldbrum, a lawyer for the unnamed accuser, mentioned Weinstein’s retrial marks a “pivotal second within the struggle for accountability in intercourse abuse instances” and a “sign to different survivors that the system is catching up — and that it’s value talking out even when the chances appear insurmountable.”
This time round, the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace is prosecuting Weinstein by its Particular Victims Division, which focuses on such instances, after murder veterans helmed the 2020 model. On the identical time, Weinstein has added a number of legal professionals to his protection group — together with Jennifer Bonjean, who’s concerned in interesting his 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles. She helped Invoice Cosby get his conviction overturned and defended R. Kelly in his intercourse crimes case.
“This trial will not be going to be all about #MeToo. It’s going to be in regards to the information of what came about,” Weinstein’s lead lawyer, Arthur Aidala, mentioned lately. “And that’s an enormous deal. And that’s the way in which it’s imagined to be.”
However there has already been some speak of #MeToo. A prosecutor requested potential jurors whether or not they’d heard of the motion. Most mentioned that they had, however that it wouldn’t have an effect on them both approach.
Those that indicated it would had been excused.
