During Harvey Weinstein's first trial in 2020, lawyers talked to a former model for the first time. She said he made her do something sexual against her will.

But the jury never heard about Kaja Sokola’s claim.

On Wednesday, Sokola started to tell her story to a new jury.

Sokola did not look at Weinstein as she walked past him to the witness stand in a New York courtroom. He is in court again because a higher court said his first trial in 2020 was not fair. The police also added another charge because of what Sokola said happened to her.

When she started talking about her life before the attack she said happened in 2006, Weinstein looked at her with his hand over his mouth.

Mr. Weinstein says he is innocent. His lawyers say the women agreed to sex because they wanted jobs in movies and TV. They also say the women stayed in touch with him after they say he attacked them.

Sokola is 39 years old and comes from Poland. She is a therapist and a writer. She said she recently started a company that makes films. She sued Weinstein because people in the film industry were talking about how he acted towards women. These talks became public in 2017 and helped start the #MeToo movement against wrong sexual actions. Prosecutors said Sokola later received $3.5 million.

Sokola stated that she was never keen on modeling, preferring acting and writing instead. However, her mother and sister encouraged her to participate in a Polish modeling competition when she was 14. After winning, she secured a contract with a modeling agency and quickly found herself balancing middle school with photo shoots.

She said she grew up very fast in the next two years. In 2002, she was 16 and in New York for modeling work. She was there alone.

Sokola will speak again on Thursday, but no one has asked her about Weinstein yet. Prosecutors said she met him in New York in 2002 when she was there for a modeling trip.

In her lawsuits, Sokola said that soon after she met Weinstein, he asked her to lunch to talk about her job. But then he hurt her sexually. The lawsuits said he hurt her sexually and emotionally for many years after that.

The criminal charge is about one time Sokola says Weinstein forced her to have oral sex with him in a New York hotel in May 2006.

Prosecutors said it happened after Weinstein helped Sokola get a small part in the film "The Nanny Diaries." He met her older sister, and Sokola wanted to impress her sister.

Her sister, Dr. Ewa Sokola, who is a heart doctor, told the people in court on Wednesday that she was happy she knew him.

She said the three people met in a hotel lobby. They talked about Italian films. They also talked about Harvey Weinstein's health because he was a big man. Then he and the model left the table together.

Kaja Sokola was nervous when she came back about 30 minutes later. She looked like someone waiting for important results. But she didn't talk about the sexual assault, Dr. Sokola told the jury.

She said she was surprised to hear about the claim after many years, when she read about it in a magazine.

Weinstein's lawyers can ask Kaja Sokola questions soon.

Prosecutors said they started looking into Sokola's stories after her lawyers called before Weinstein's first trial. But they stopped the investigation after he was found guilty and the coronavirus problem was coming.

They started the Sokola investigation again after the court in New York said Weinstein was not guilty.

Weinstein's lawyers tried to stop the court from hearing what Sokola said, but they could not. They said the other side was trying to add a new problem to the case to help other people who said bad things about Weinstein seem more believable.

Another woman, Miriam Haley, said last week that Weinstein made her do oral sex in 2006. The third woman who says he hurt her, Jessica Mann, will probably speak later.

Usually, the Associated Press does not use the names of people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they say it is okay. Haley, Mann, and Sokola said it is okay.