Polish model says her ‘soul was removed’ when Weinstein ‘raped’ her in NYC hotel room

MANHATTAN (CN) — Harvey Weinstein’s new sexual assault accuser on Thursday recalled the day she said the disgraced film mogul “raped” her in a New York City hotel room, telling jurors that Weinstein “forced himself on my vagina.”

“My soul was removed from me,” Polish model Kaja Sokola testified.

Weinstein is facing a retrial for sexual assault charges that he was convicted on in 2020, which were subsequently tossed by New York’s highest court in 2024. Prosecutors are retrying Weinstein on allegations from actress Jessica Mann and former TV production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haley.

They also added a fresh charge from a new accuser in Sokola, who told the court on Thursday that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006.

Sokola said she was introducing her sister to Weinstein over lunch at the swanky Tribeca Grand hotel in Manhattan — the same hotel where Haley claims Weinstein assaulted her, too — when Weinstein invited Sokola to his room to show her a script.

In reality, there was no script, Sokola testified. Instead, when Weinstein brought her to his hotel room, he pushed her onto the bed, “ripped off” her stockings and underwear and proceeded to perform oral sex on her.

“I kept saying: ‘Please don’t, please stop, I don’t want this,’” Sokola said. “But he didn’t listen.”

Sokola added that Weinstein, who was “way larger” than her, pinned her underneath his body during the attack. She said she didn’t kick or scream, but she was actively trying to squirm her way out from Weinstein’s grip to no avail.

When Weinstein was finished with the assault, Sokola said he told her: “You see? That wasn’t so difficult.” Sokola disagreed.

“I felt like I was dead at some points,” she said, clarifying that what happened that day was “absolutely not” consensual.

“He raped me,” Sokola testified.

According to her, it wasn’t the first time either. Weinstein is only charged with that 2006 incident, as it pertains to Sokola. But she also testified Thursday that Weinstein sexually assaulted her four years prior when she was just 16 years old.

In that instance, Sokola said Weinstein lured her to his SoHo apartment after inviting her to lunch to discuss her acting prospects. What happened there, Sokola said, was “the most horrifying thing I have ever experienced until that time.”

The teenaged Sokola followed Weinstein up to his unit and into a bedroom, where he instructed her to take off her clothes, Sokola testified.

“I didn’t want to do that,” she said. “I was panicking.”

Sokola testified that Weinstein told her she needed to listen to him if she wanted to be an actress, and that she should “get used to” being asked to strip if she ever wanted to work on a film set. She obliged and removed her top, but said she was scared of him.

“I’ve never been in an intimate situation with another person like that,” she said, dabbing tears from her eyes with a tissue. “Before this, I had a high school boyfriend, and we would kiss and hold hands, but I’d never been in a situation like this … I never had a fear of men before that.”

Sokola said that Weinstein, who had his pants and underwear down to his knees, told her to go into the apartment’s bathroom. She said she didn’t want to; Weinstein told her that she has “to work on [her] stubbornness,” and she eventually went in as told, Sokola testified.

“He put a hand on my vagina, under my underwear,” Sokola said, speaking through tears once again. “He took my hand and put it on his penis … and then he was using my hand to masturbate.”

Sokola added that, during the assault, she looked in the bathroom mirror and saw Weinstein’s eyes staring at her in the reflection.

“They looked black and scary,” she said.

Afterward, Sokola said Weisntein tried to justify his actions by telling her that he “made the careers” of Hollywood stars like Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow. She said that Weinstein also instructed her to keep what had happened between them.

It was an experience she said she’d never forget, and one that for many years she blamed herself for and didn’t tell her family about.

“I was embarrassed,” she said. “How could I tell this to my dad?”

New York Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber reminded jurors that Sokola’s testimony about the 2002 incident was “uncharged criminal conduct,” elicited as evidence to bolster the charged claims.

Sokola is the second of three accusers expected to testify against Weinstein at his rape retrial in New York City. Haley testified last week, when she called Weinstein a “fucking asshole” on the witness stand.

Mann and Haley testified at Weinstein’s initial criminal trial in 2020. Their testimonies helped secure a guilty verdict and eventual 23-year prison sentence against the disgraced film producer.

But Weinstein’s conviction was tossed last year, paving the way for a retrial. Sokola is the lone new accuser in the case, and is telling her story to a criminal jury in Manhattan for the first time.

Sokola’s older sister Ewa Sokola testified on Wednesday, telling jurors that her little sibling didn’t appear upset or scared when she saw her after the supposed assault.

“I think she was proud of this friendship,” Ewa Sokola said of her sister’s relationship with Weinstein.

Weinstein is charged with two counts of committing a sexual act and one count of third-degree rape.

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