Harvey Weinstein Accused of Using 'Dream Opportunities as Weapons' as Retrial Begins in NYC: DEETS Inside

Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of sexual abuse and rape. 

Harvey Weinstein’s retrial began in New York on Wednesday, April 23, nearly one year after he was convicted. The disgraced film producer is charged with two counts of committing a “criminal s*xual act” in the first degree and one count of third-degree rape, as accused by three different female plaintiffs. 

Kaja Sokola, one of the accusers, was not in attendance during his 2020 trial. However, in September of last year, she accused Weinstein of performing oral s*x on her in a Manhattan hotel between April and May of 2006. 

The producer faced another federal charge from Sokola, who was unidentified at the time. The movie mogul has been convicted of s*xually abusing the other two plaintiffs. One of them was former TV production assistant Miriam Haley, and the other was Jessica Mann. 

However, the convictions were later overturned along with the announcement of a retrial. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the ongoing retrial. The opening statements were initiated by the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey, who began by quoting some remarks, allegedly made by the disgraced filmmaker. 

Lucey told the jury that Weinstein used “dream opportunities as weapons” against vulnerable women and took advantage of them. “I make, I break careers,” the attorney said, allegedly quoting the accused. 

The attorney then narrated the allegations made by the accusers. Lucey also discussed two alleged encounters Sokola had with Weinstein—one in 2002, when the accuser was 16 years old, and another in 2006. 

In the earlier incident, the plaintiff claimed that the former producer bullied her into allowing him to touch her inappropriately and made her touch his p*nis. Lucey revealed that after the 2002 incident, Sokola continued to reach out to the producer for career opportunities.