Harvey Weinstein retrial underway in New York over sex crime allegations


Harvey Weinstein “preyed on three women” while “he held unfettered power for over 30 years” in Hollywood, a prosecutor said Wednesday during an opening statement at the former movie mogul’s sex crimes retrial in New York.

“Harvey Weinstein had enormous control over those working in television and film. He decided who was in and who was out,” the prosecutor, Shannon Lucey, told the jury of seven women and five men. “He held the golden ticket. The chance to make it or not.”

Lucey claimed that “no” was “not a word the defendant was used to hearing.”

“The defendant wanted their bodies and the more they resisted the more forceful he got,” she said.

Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court ahead of opening arguments in the rape and sexual assault trial against him in New York, April 23, 2025.

Sarah Yenesel/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations.

His defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, countered during his opening statement that Weinstein did not coerce the women and claimed they were using him for his connections.

“The casting couch was not a crime scene,” Aidala said.

‘He had all the power,’ prosecutor says

The Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s initial conviction last year, finding the trial judge “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”

He is being retried for sexually assaulting two women, Mimi Haley and Jessica Mann. He is also charged with sexually assaulting a third woman, Kaja Sokola, who was not part of the first trial. All three women have publicly come forward and are being identified by name in the trial.

Ahead of the opening statement, a court officer wheeled Weinstein into court. He appeared in a navy suit, white shirt, tie and thick black eyeglasses. Two court officers sat behind him at each of his shoulders.

Two women who testified against Weinstein at his first trial were among the spectators in the packed courtroom.

Lucey, an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, detailed the alleged sex assaults committed against the three women.

Lucey said Haley was not interested in Weinstein but, under the guise of discussing a production role on “Project Runway,” she went to his Crosby Street apartment in July 2006 where he allegedly “held her down” and subjected her to forcible sexual conduct.

The prosecutor noted the size difference between the two: “115-pound Mimi, 300-pound defendant.”

Sokola was 16 when she first met Weinstein in 2002 at a restaurant in the West Village shortly after signing a modeling contract to come to New York from Poland. Weinstein asked if she was interested in being in movies and “her eyes lit up,” Lucey said.

Several years later, in 2006, Weinstein cast Sokola as an extra in “The Nanny Diaries.” After a lunch at a Manhattan hotel that year, Weinstein allegedly “pressed on her shoulders with enough force to get her down on the bed” and forced oral sex on the 19-year-old as she said, “Please do not do this,” Lucey claims.

Lucey also claims that when Sokola was 16, Weinstein allegedly forced her to touch his genitals in a Manhattan apartment. Weinstein is not charged in that alleged 2002 incident in the indictment, as it is outside the statute of limitations. But the judge has allowed Sokola to testify about it during the trial, along with a second alleged incident involving Weinstein that she says occurred in 2004. Sokola previously filed a lawsuit in New York under the Child Victims Act over the alleged 2002 incident, which prosecutors said has since been settled.

In 2013, Weinstein allegedly subjected Mann to sex without her consent at a hotel.

“The defendant committed these acts while he was at the top of the entertainment industry. He had all the power. They had none. That imbalance of power ensured their silence,” Lucey said.

Lucey claims Mann had also engaged in sexual encounters with Weinstein that were not coerced out of fear of his power in the industry.

Harvey Weinstein appears at his retrial in Manhattan Criminal Court, April 23, 2025, in New York.

Steven Hirsch/Pool/Getty Images

Defense maintains acts were consensual

Weinstein’s attorney began his defense by comparing the prosecution’s opening statement to a coming attraction at the theater.

“How many times has the preview looked great and the movie fallen flat on its face?” Aidala asked. “This case is going to fall flat on its face.”

He implored jurors: “We want you to watch the whole movie.”

Aidala agreed with prosecutors that Weinstein was a powerful man in the television and film industries, but he told the jury Weinstein did not coerce the women he’s accused of assaulting. Instead, Aidala claimed Weinstein engaged in “mutually beneficial relationships” that the attorney said have been going on in Hollywood for a hundred years.

“They’re fooling around with him consensually,” Aidala claimed. “The casting couch was not a crime scene.”

The defense asked the jury to draw a distinction between immorality and illegality and see the alleged encounters as something involving “friends with benefits.”

Aidala said all three alleged victims maintained lengthy, friendly, positive relationships with Weinstein after the alleged assaults.

“Love you, miss you, XO,” Aidala said, quoting messages he said the women sent to Weinstein.

“He was the man who could make things happen,” Aidala said. “They wanted to use Harvey.”

The defense suggested the women embellished their accusations as part of a money grab.

“There will be 4 million reasons to lie. That’s how much they all took,” Aidala said after pointing out the presence of Gloria Allred, the attorney for one of the plaintiffs, in the back row.



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