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Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was again in court docket right this moment for the beginning of a retrial after a New York appeals court docket overturned his unique 2020 conviction.
Weinstein is already in jail, serving 16 years for a 2022 rape conviction in California.
The retrial stems from allegations made by the 2 unique accusers — Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann — in addition to a 3rd lady, Kaja Sokola, whose account was simply heard in court docket for the primary time right this moment.
Disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein seems in Manhattan Felony Courtroom forward of opening arguments within the rape and sexual assault trial towards him in New York Metropolis on April 23, 2025. (Photograph by CURTIS MEANS/POOL/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Yet one more Weinstein accuser comes ahead
Sokola is a former mannequin from Poland who alleges that Weinstein forcibly carried out oral intercourse on her in 2006.
In response to Web page Six, the alleged assault passed off in Weinstein’s Manhattan resort room, the place he’d lured Sokola “with the promise of movie scripts.”
Sokola additionally alleges that Weinstein molested her at his residence 4 years earlier when she was simply 16. Prosecutors aren’t pursuing prices associated to that declare, as a result of statute of limitations.
Sokola’s allegations had been added to the case after Weinstein’s earlier conviction was overturned.
Assistant District Lawyer Shannon Lucey instructed jurors that Weinstein used “dream opportunities as weapons” to prey on the plaintiffs.
“The defendant wanted their bodies, and the more they resisted, the more forceful he got,” she mentioned.
Disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein gestures as he seems in Manhattan Felony Courtroom forward of opening arguments within the rape and sexual assault trial towards him in New York Metropolis on April 23, 2025. (Photograph by STEVEN HIRSCH/POOL/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Lucey instructed the court docket that Weinstein “held the golden ticket: a chance to make it, or not.”
He has been formally charged with raping Mann and forcing oral intercourse on Haley and Sokola.
Whereas Web page Six describes right this moment’s courtroom as “packed,” the outlet additionally notes that Weinstein’s most up-to-date trial just isn’t almost as huge a narrative because the earlier two had been.
All through Weinstein’s first trial, protestors gathered outdoors the courthouse and heckled the defendant with chants of “rapist,” which could possibly be heard inside.
“This time, there was none of that,” the outlet reported right this moment.
Disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein seems in Manhattan Felony Courtroom forward of opening arguments within the rape and sexual assault trial towards him in New York Metropolis on April 23, 2025. (Photograph by SARAH YENESEL/POOL/AFP through Getty Photographs)
The change is little question partially as a result of cultural adjustments which have taken place because the begin of the #MeToo motion.
Nonetheless, evidently Weinstein has not given up hope that he’ll sooner or later stroll free. And for his accusers, the need for justice is little question as sturdy right this moment because it was after they first got here ahead.
We’ll have additional updates on this growing story as new info turns into obtainable.
