Prosecutor details allegations from a newly named accuser as Harvey Weinstein’s NYC retrial gets underway

(CNN) — For the second time, a New York jury heard from a prosecutor about how once-renowned movie producer Harvey Weinstein used his power and influence to prey on women with industry career aspirations.

In opening statements Wednesday morning, Shannon Lucey, a prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, told the jury “he knew how tempting promises of success were. He produced, he choreographed, he directed their ultimate silence for years.”

Weinstein faces charges from two indictments including two counts of first degree criminal sexual act and one count of third-degree rape involving allegations from three different women.

Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala painted a different picture, telling the jury that Weinstein had long-term consensual relationships with all three women that were “mutually beneficial.”

Weinstein’s 2020 conviction was overturned by the New York Court of Appeals last year, leading to what is now a retrial of two charges tied to the allegations of two women who testified at his first trial, Mimi Haley and Jessica Mann. They are expected to testify against him again along with a third woman, Kaja Sokola, whose identity was not publicly released before the trial. Weinstein was charged in a second indictment last fall in connection to an alleged altercation with Sokola in 2006.

Lucey described the allegations of the three women to the jury in court on Wednesday, telling the panel how Weinstein wielded his position of power.

The prosecutor described details of Sokola’s allegations that were not previously made public.

Sokola, who was born and raised in Poland, met Weinstein when she was 16, on a modeling trip without her parents. He suggested they meet for lunch to discuss her potential acting career when they met in a night club.

When he picked her up for what she thought was a business lunch, Weinstein took the then-16-year-old to his apartment and attacked her in the apartment’s bathroom, according to the prosecution.

Sokola sued Weinstein under the Child Victims Act in 2019 and eventually received a settlement over the incident that happened in 2002 when she was 16, Lucey told the jury.

Those allegations, however, are not linked to the charges on trial now because they fall outside the statute of limitations, Sokola’s lawyer Lindsay Goldbrum told reporters outside court. Goldbrum also accused Weinstein’s lawyer of “ victim blaming” in his opening statement.

Weinstein is charged with one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree in connection to another altercation Sokola alleges happened at a New York City hotel years later in 2006, when she was 19.

She’d asked Weinstein to lunch with her older sister whom she had hoped to impress, the prosecutor said. Luring her to a room upstairs under the guise of reviewing some movie scripts, Weinstein allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on her.

Crying, Sokola repeatedly said “please don’t do this” as Weinstein forced her onto the hotel bed, Lucey told the jury.

Weinstein’s attorney pushed back in his opening statement, telling the jury Sokola had a mutually beneficial relationship with Weinstein for more than ten years since was 19. Sokola also received a settlement through The Weinstein Company’s bankruptcy proceedings in connection to these allegations, according to the prosecutor.

“Ultimately, this trial is about an incredibly powerful man who used and wielded that power to take advantage of women again. During this assault, Kaja was only 19 years old, and Harvey Weinstein was 54. Kaja has endured so much suffering because of the act that he committed against her,” Sokola’s lawyer Lindsay Goldbrum said outside court. “Kaja is no longer afraid, and she is willing to tell her story when the time comes.”

In addition to the charge involving Sokola, Weinstein faces one count of third-degree rape for allegedly raping Mann in a New York City hotel room in 2013. A jury in 2020 convicted Weinstein on that charge after hearing Mann’s emotional testimony about the alleged rape and complicated yearslong relationship with the movie producer.

Weinstein is charged with a second count of criminal sexual act in the first degree in connection to Haley’s allegations. She will testify at trial that when she was in Weinstein’s New York City apartment in 2006, Weinstein backed her into a bedroom and forcibly performed oral sex on her, the prosecutor said.

Weinstein had arranged for Haley to work on a well-known show at the time, “Project Runway,” even though she didn’t have proper paperwork to work in the US at the time, Lucey said.

Haley eventually received a settlement in connection to the allegations through the Weinstein Company bankruptcy proceedings, Lucey said. She didn’t pursue the civil litigation until after Weinstein was convicted in the first New York trial.

‘Wakeup call’

Lucey told the jury that the beginning of the #MeToo movement prompted the three women to feel safe enough to finally come forward after years of fearing Weinstein’s wrath.

“October 2017 was a wakeup call to let their deeply kept traumatic secret out knowing people were listening,” Lucey said.

Gesturing at Weinstein at the defense table, Lucey told the jurors to look beyond the “frail man in the wheelchair” to imagine the powerful man he was years ago at the height of his career that would threaten to ruin young women’s careers if he didn’t get what he wanted.

Weinstein’s lawyer acknowledged that the disgraced movie mogul “was a man who could make dreams come true.”

He also said, “In this case the casting couch is not a crime scene.”

In his opening statement, Aidala acknowledged Weinstein’s behavior was amoral, and not how an employer should act, but said, “There is a lot of real estate between immorality and illegality.”

“Should he have cheated on his gorgeous, beautiful wife? Absolutely not,” Aidala said. “Was it amoral? 100%.”

Aidala also told the jury it was “wrong on both ends.” He said the women were using Weinstein for his connections, “They tried to cut the line.”

“The evidence its going to show they wanted to please him, he didn’t need any of them,” Aidala said.

Weinstein smiled and shook his head as his lawyers told the jury that he may not look like celebrities like George Clooney or Leonardo DiCaprio, but the women were drawn to his charm and generosity.

Weinstein has remained in custody in New York serving a sentence in connection to a separate 2022 conviction on sexual assault charges in Los Angeles.

Following opening statements, prosecutors called one witness in court on Wednesday, with the trial scheduled to continue on Thursday.

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