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Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was again in court docket at this time 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 girl, Kaja Sokola, whose account was simply heard in court docket for the primary time at this time.
Yet one other Weinstein accuser comes ahead
Sokola is a former mannequin from Poland who alleges that Weinstein forcibly carried out oral intercourse on her in 2006.
According to Page Six, the alleged assault befell 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 condo 4 years earlier when she was simply 16. Prosecutors usually are not pursuing expenses 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 Attorney 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 stated.
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.
While Page Six describes at this time’s courtroom as “packed,” the outlet additionally notes that Weinstein’s most up-to-date trial just isn’t practically as massive a narrative because the earlier two had been.
Throughout 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 at this time.
The change is little doubt partially as a result of cultural adjustments which have taken place for the reason that begin of the #MeToo motion.
But it might need extra to do with the truth that Weinstein’s case is solely outdated information, as most observers have concluded that the ailing 73-year-old will seemingly die in jail whatever the end result of this newest trial.
However, it appears that evidently Weinstein has not given up hope that he’ll in the future stroll free. And for his accusers, the need for justice is little doubt as robust at this time because it was after they first got here ahead.
We’ll have additional updates on this creating story as new data turns into out there.