NEW YORK (AP) — A former model reproached one of Harvey Weinstein ’s lawyers for suggesting that her sexual abuse allegations against the ex-studio boss are lies.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Kaja Sokola retorted. In her fifth and final day of testimony at Weinstein’s sex crimes retrial, she maintained that she was telling the truth and that Weinstein’s alleged conduct in her teens had changed the course of her life.
“It changed the course of your life in that you got $3.5 million from false accusations?” defense lawyer Mike Cibella pressed, referring to compensation she was awarded through civil proceedings in recent years.
“No. That’s very unfair,” Sokola said softly. “That’s not true.”
During her days on the witness stand, she said Weinstein repeatedly offered to foster her acting ambitions but then made unwanted physical advances, beginning when she was 16 in 2002.
Weinstein, 73, faces a sexual assault charge related solely to her allegation that he forced oral sex on her when she was 19. He also faces charges based on two other women’s claims. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and his attorneys assert that his accusers had consensual sexual encounters with the Oscar-winning producer because they wanted movie and TV work.
Weinstein’s lawyers grilled Sokola about her requests for career help from him after the alleged assault, her motives for her civil lawsuits and criminal trial testimony, as well as her personal struggles, and even a private journal she kept for an alcohol-abuse program in her native Poland.
After apparently getting the decade-old writings via the witness’ sister, the defense was allowed to bring up portions in which Sokola said two other men had sexually assaulted her over the years but didn’t say the same about Weinstein. Instead, she wrote that he promised her help but didn’t deliver.
Sokola testified Wednesday that she had left out Weinstein’s alleged sexual abuse partly because she couldn’t come to terms with it at the time. Also, she said, her sponsor was in the film business in Poland and knew who Weinstein was.
Cibella questioned that explanation, noting that the text mentioned only “Harvey W” and nothing about his profession. Sokola said her sponsor nonetheless knew his identity because they talked about it.
Tearing up as she spoke, she said she hadn’t seen the black notebook for 10 years, never gave anyone permission to share it and was stunned and appalled to be confronted with it in court.
“I felt very violated,” said Sokola, now 39 and a psychotherapist.
She was the second of Weinstein’s accusers to testify at the retrial, and the only one who wasn’t involved in his first trial in 2020. That proceeding led to a landmark #MeToo-era conviction that was subsequently overturned, setting up the retrial. Prosecutors decided to add Sokola’s allegations to it.
Another woman, Miriam Haley, already has told jurors at the retrial that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006. The third accuser, Jessica Mann, is expected to testify in the coming days or weeks. She alleges that Weinstein raped her in 2013.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted unless they give permission to be identified. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so.
