Early in Harvey Weinstein’s initial sexual assault trial in 2020, prosecutors held a private discussion for the first time with a former model who claimed he had compelled her to perform oral sex.

However, the jury was not told about Kaja Sokola's claim. Prosecutors said they were still looking into the accusation when Weinstein, a former movie boss who is now unpopular because of the #MeToo movement, was found guilty in February 2020 of charges from other women's accusations.

On Wednesday, Sokola commenced recounting her narrative to a new jury.

Sokola avoided eye contact with Weinstein as she proceeded past him and onto the witness stand in a Manhattan courtroom where he is facing a retrial. An appeals court had previously overturned his 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault, remanding those charges for a new trial, and prosecutors have since appended an additional sexual assault charge stemming from Sokola's allegations.

While she began recounting her life prior to the alleged assault in 2006, Weinstein directed his gaze towards her, his right hand covering his mouth.

Weinstein, who is 73, says he is not guilty of the charges. His lawyers say that the women who accused him agreed to have sex with him because they hoped to get chances in movies and TV. The defense has also highlighted that the women kept in touch with him for some time after they say the attacks happened.

Sokola, a 39-year-old psychotherapist and author of Polish origin, also recently established a film production company. Her lawsuit against Weinstein followed the transformation of industry whispers regarding his conduct towards women into a public outcry in 2017, thereby catalyzing the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. Prosecutors indicated that Sokola ultimately received $3.5 million in compensation.

Sokola stated that she was never drawn to modeling — favoring acting and writing instead — but her mother and sister resolved that she should enter a Polish modeling competition at the age of 14. Securing a contract with a modeling agency, she was soon balancing middle school with demanding photo shoots.

She described the subsequent two years as a period of rapid personal development, stating that by 2002, at the age of sixteen, she was navigating the New York modeling scene independently.

Sokola, whose testimony is anticipated to continue on Thursday, has not yet faced questions regarding Weinstein, although prosecutors have stated that she was introduced to him during that 2002 modeling trip to New York.

In her lawsuits, Sokola said that soon after meeting Weinstein, he asked her to lunch to talk about her job, but then he sexually assaulted her. The lawsuits claimed that he sexually harassed and emotionally abused her for many years after that.

The criminal charge arises from a single occasion where Sokola asserts that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel in May 2006.

Prosecutors said it happened after Weinstein arranged for Sokola to be an extra in the film “The Nanny Diaries” and met her older sister, who was visiting and whom she wanted to impress.

"She took pride in knowing him," her sister, the cardiologist Dr. Ewa (pronounced EH'-vah) Sokola, informed the jury on Wednesday.

She recounted that the trio convened in a hotel lobby, engaging in conversation about Italian cinema and the stout Weinstein's cardiovascular condition, before he and the model departed the table in unison.

Dr. Sokola told the jury that Kaja Sokola was very tense when she came back about thirty minutes later, like someone waiting for exam results or the Oscars, but she did not say anything about the sexual assault she said happened.

She stated she was astounded to discover the assertion more than a decade later, having encountered it in a magazine article.

Weinstein's lawyers will have the opportunity to question Kaja Sokola in the next few days. In his opening statement last month, defense lawyer Arthur Aidala asked why she waited so many years to speak out. The prosecutors have said that the people who accused him were hesitant to speak because Weinstein was rich and powerful.

Prosecutors stated they commenced investigating Sokola's allegations after her legal representatives contacted them the day before Weinstein's initial trial, but they deferred the inquiry once he was found guilty and as the coronavirus pandemic became imminent.

Following the New York highest court's reversal of Weinstein's conviction, they reinstated the Sokola investigation.

Weinstein's lawyers tried but failed to stop Sokola's claim from being included in the new trial. They said the prosecutors secretly added another charge to the case to make the other accusers seem more believable.

Another individual, Miriam Haley, presented her testimony last week, alleging that Weinstein compelled her to perform oral sex in 2006. The third accuser in the proceedings, Jessica Mann, is anticipated to give evidence subsequently.

The Associated Press typically refrains from identifying individuals who allege sexual assault unless they grant explicit consent, as Haley, Mann, and Sokola have done.