Warning: This article can affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who is affected.
Harvey Weinstein’s retrial was opened in New York City on Wednesday and gave a new jury a new look at rape and sexual assault – as well as a newly added claim of a former model.
For the first time, the prosecutors Kaja Sokola publicly identified and described their report about what developed between her and the film producer in the early 2000s. Weinstein is criminal accused of forcing oral sex in 2006, but she also accused him of wearing her will in a civil law lawsuit against her will against her will.
Like the other two accusers in the case, Sokola claims to be sexually attacked, but to keep in touch with Weinstein, to deal with it, but with the Hollywood Power Broker, who dangled the possibility of a acting career, to remain on good conditions.
“Why did the defendant keep this power and control in the eyes of these three women? It is because Harvey Weinstein defined the field,” prosecutor Shannon Lucy told the jury in a declaration of opening. “He knew how tempting promises were. He produced, so he choreographed her ultimate silence for years.”
Weinstein used “dream options as weapons” to hunt the three accusers in this case, said Lucy.
“The accused wanted her body, and the more they opposed, the more powerful he became.”
“Casting couch is not a crime scene,” says Defense
The resumption takes place because New York’s top court ejected Weinstein’s condemnation in 2020 last year, which was a turning point for the #metoo movement against sexual misconduct. The High Court found that the former process judge allowed disadvantageous statements to allegations that were separated from the charges.
Weinstein has not guilty again, and defender Arthur Aidala countered law enforcement by portraying the prosecutors as a willing partner in a Showbiz -Pro -Pro -Quo.
“The casting couch is not a crime scene,” Aidala told the majority jury. He compared the public prosecutor’s allegations with the preview of a film that “falls flat in the face”.
The 73-year-old Weinstein, who sits in a wheelchair, that he now uses due to health problems, did not look at Lucy or the jury in front of the district prosecutor of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg and others in a full audience in the courtroom. But Weinstein attentively watched Aidala outlined his defense.
Weinstein’s resumption takes place at a different cultural moment than in the first. The #metoo movement, which exploded with allegations against Weinstein in 2017, has also developed.
The jury counts seven women and five men-in opposition to the seven men, five women who convicted him in 2020-and there is another judge.
At the beginning of Weinstein’s first process, demonstrators outside of demonstrators heard “rapists”. This time there was none of it.
Nevertheless, Sokola’s lawyer Lindsay Goldbrum Weinstein’s resumption of a “signal for other survivors that the system catches up for – and that it is worth talking about, even if the opportunities seem insurmountable.”
Weinstein faces the indictment of old and new criminal sex.
In addition to a new indictment against criminal sex laws, WEINSTEIN is becoming Miriam Haley, a film and television production assistant in 2006, and a third-degree rape accusation in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 in 2013, which was violent at the time, which was violent at the time.
The prosecutors said that Sokola had acted days before his first legal proceedings, but was not part of this case. They said they had visited their allegations again when his conviction was ejected.
New York’s Higher Court lifted Harvey Weinstein’s conviction from 2020 for sexual assault and rape, a pioneering judgment of the #metoo movement. Andrew Chang explains how the public prosecutor knew that she took a game of chance and where this gambling went wrong.
The Associated Press generally does not identify any people who claim sexual assault, unless they agree to be named, as Haley, Mann and Sokola have done.
More than 100 women, including famous actresses, have accused wine stone of misconduct.
While these jurors do not hear from the allegations that have nothing to do with the criminal complaints that triggered the first conviction, it is expected that they will hear from Sokola.
Sokola’s lists of court accusations
Sokola born in Poland met Weinstein in 2002 after he had traveled to New York alone to achieve a model excursion at the age of 16.
She claims that he had invited her for lunch to discuss potential acting jobs, but moved to his apartment and asked for her shirt to move out if she wanted to do it in the film business. Then, according to Sokola, Weinstein stroked her as she touches his genitals.
In the next few years, Sokola stayed in contact with Weinstein, even after he had told him that he was allegedly felt in a car around 2004, Lucey told the jurors. she said The Nanny diariesAnd she invited him to lunch with her visiting sister, hoping to impress her.
After lunch, Lucey said that he lured Sokola to his hotel room in Manhattan by saying that he had to see scripts for her, ordered her to undress.
In the weeks later, Sokola was photographed at an event with Weinstein and a third person, and his company wrote a letter of recommendation for the drama school, said the prosecutor. Lucy told the jury that power weights often “lead to the victims behave as lay people may not expect”.
According to other allegations against Weinstein in 2017, Sokola sued. Prosecutors said they received 3.5 million US dollars in compensation.
Aidala said that Sokola and the other accusers “tried to use Mr. Weinstein when he was at the top”, then benefited from the allegations “when he went down”.
Outside of the court, Sokola’s lawyer Weinstein’s defense condemned as a “victim” and “rape myths”.
Weinstein’s acquittal about the two most serious accusations in his attempt from 2020-predator sexual assault and rape of the first degree still standing, but he was also convicted of sex crimes in California and sentenced to a 16-year prison sentence. He is currently a calling.
If you fear in direct danger or fear for your security or that of others around you, please call 911. You can search for support in your region via the crisis lines and local services Ending Violence Association of Canada database.
