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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 prison, 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.
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.
Based on Page Six, the alleged assault came about in Weinstein’s Manhattan resort room, the place he’d lured Sokola “with the promise of film scripts.”
Sokola additionally alleges that Weinstein molested her at his residence 4 years earlier when she was simply 16. Prosecutors aren’t pursuing costs associated to that declare, as a result of statute of limitations.
Sokola’s allegations have been added to the case after Weinstein’s earlier conviction was overturned.
Assistant District Lawyer Shannon Lucey advised jurors that Weinstein used “dream alternatives as weapons” to prey on the plaintiffs.
“The defendant needed their our bodies, and the extra they resisted, the extra forceful he bought,” she mentioned.
Lucey advised the court docket that Weinstein “held the golden ticket: an opportunity 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 isn’t almost as huge a narrative because the earlier two have been.
All through Weinstein’s first trial, protestors gathered outdoors the courthouse and heckled the defendant with chants of “rapist,” which may very well be heard inside.
“This time, there was none of that,” the outlet reported right this moment.
The change is little question partially as a consequence of cultural modifications which have taken place for the reason that begin of the #MeToo motion.
But it surely might need extra to do with the truth that Weinstein’s case is just previous information, as most observers have concluded that the ailing 73-year-old will seemingly die in jail whatever the end result of this newest trial.
Nonetheless, it appears that evidently Weinstein has not given up hope that he’ll at some point stroll free. And for his accusers, the need for justice is little question as robust right this moment because it was once they first got here ahead.
We’ll have additional updates on this growing story as new info turns into out there.
