Ex-model testifying in Weinstein sex trial questioned about private journal
A former teenage fashion model giving evidence in Harvey Weinstein's retrial on sexual assault charges has been confronted in the witness box with a private journal in which defence lawyers say she wrote about people who sexually abused her.
As one of Weinstein's lawyers began to question her about the handwritten journal, Kaja Sokola protested that it should not be discussed in open court as she had written it as part of a substance abuse treatment programme years ago.
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'This is very inappropriate,' she pleaded as the lawyer began to cite portions of the text, which they say was originally written in Polish in 2015.
'Please don't read that. This is my personal things. I'm not on trial here.'
Judge Curtis Farber dismissed the jury for a lunch break as Ms Sokola began to get emotional.
He assured her later that he would allow the jury to hear limited questioning around the document. The judge also said he had concerns about the journal's completeness and authenticity, wondering how defence lawyers had obtained what appeared to be private medical records.
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'This might backfire tremendously' for the defence, Judge Farber said at one point, as prosecutors also strongly opposed inclusion of the journal as evidence in the trial. 'That's the risk they're willing to take.'
Ms Sokola, who is now a 39-year-old psychotherapist, continued to push back.
'This is unethical,' she said to the judge. 'I would never do this to my patient, and I would never do this to myself.'
Michael Cibella, one of Weinstein's lawyers, told Judge Farber that the defence team intends to question Ms Sokola about a part of the journal which describes at least five sexual assaults she has suffered over her life.
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Harvey Weinstein in court (Bing Guan/AP)
Weinstein, they say, is not among those she named, though he does appear elsewhere in the journal. They say she references her frustration and disappointment after a 'Harvey W' had led her along, 'promising me help' but 'nothing came out of it'.
Ms Sokola told the court last week that Weinstein exploited her dreams of an acting career to subject her to unwanted sexual advances, starting days after they met in 2002 when she was a 16-year-old on a modelling trip to New York.
Some of those allegations are beyond the legal time limit for criminal charges, but Weinstein faces a criminal sex act charge over Ms Sokola's claim that he forced oral sex on her in 2006.
Prosecutors added the charge to the case last year after an appeals court overturned Weinstein's 2020 conviction. The guilty verdict pertained to allegations from two other women, who also have testified or are expected to give evidence at the retrial.
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Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty and denies sexually assaulting anyone.
His lawyers, in their cross-examination of Ms Sokola that began on Friday, have sought to raise doubts about her allegations, portraying her as an aspiring actress who tried to leverage her consensual relations with the former studio boss.
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