Set off warning: This text incorporates mentions of sexual abuse and rape.
Harvey Weinstein’s retrial started in New York on Wednesday, April 23, almost one 12 months after he was convicted. The disgraced movie producer is charged with two counts of committing a “felony s*xual act” within the first diploma and one depend of third-degree rape, as accused by three completely different feminine plaintiffs.
Kaja Sokola, one of many accusers, was not in attendance throughout his 2020 trial. Nonetheless, in September of final 12 months, she accused Weinstein of performing oral s*x on her in a Manhattan lodge between April and Could of 2006.
The producer confronted one other federal cost from Sokola, who was unidentified on the time. The film mogul has been convicted of s*xually abusing the opposite two plaintiffs. One in all them was former TV manufacturing assistant Miriam Haley, and the opposite was Jessica Mann.
Nonetheless, the convictions have been later overturned together with the announcement of a retrial. Weinstein has pleaded not responsible to all prices within the ongoing retrial. The opening statements have been initiated by the prosecutor, Assistant District Legal professional Shannon Lucey, who started by quoting some remarks, allegedly made by the disgraced filmmaker.
Lucey advised the jury that Weinstein used “dream alternatives as weapons” in opposition to susceptible girls and took benefit of them. “I make, I break careers,” the lawyer mentioned, allegedly quoting the accused.
The lawyer then narrated the allegations made by the accusers. Lucey additionally mentioned two alleged encounters Sokola had with Weinstein—one in 2002, when the accuser was 16 years outdated, and one other in 2006.
Within the earlier incident, the plaintiff claimed that the previous producer bullied her into permitting him to the touch her inappropriately and made her contact his p*nis. Lucey revealed that after the 2002 incident, Sokola continued to succeed in out to the producer for profession alternatives.