Harvey Weinstein name dropped A-list celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow after sexually assaulting a 16-year-old alleged victim who screamed in horror when the attack was over, jurors heard during emotional testimony Thursday.
“I raised my voice to scream,” Kaja Sokola, 39, said in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“He got upset and he said that I have to work on my stubbornness,” Sokola said.
Sokola said Weinstein then touted the careers he’d built in Hollywood, mentioning Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow as examples and telling her “I have to listen to him if I want to proceed with that career.”
Weinstein, now 73, told the then-teen “this has to stay between us,” she said, noting the moment stood out vividly in her memory.
Harvey Weinstein in Manhattan Supreme Court on May 8, 2025. Steven HirschSokola sobbed as she described for jurors the events of that alleged assault — which happened when she was just 16 — while Weinstein observed, remaining impassive as he sat in a wheelchair.
Sokola, originally from Poland, explained how Weinstein and his driver picked her up for a lunch but then brought her to his Soho loft, where he told her to take off her clothes.
She took off her shirt and went to the bathroom with him, where he touched her vagina and forced her to touch his penis, she testified.
“It was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever experienced until that time,” Sokola said, holding a tissue in her right hand to dab her eyes.
She said she saw Weinstein’s eyes in the mirror during the alleged attack and “they looked black and scary. I will never forget this.”
Weinstein allegedly used her hand to masturbate him and eventually “ejaculated on the floor,” Sokola said.
She said she was scared of the powerful movie producer and still hoped he would help her with her career.
So she met him again in 2004, when he allegedly groped her breasts during a car ride, as a driver sat in the front seat, Sokola testified. She said she rebuffed Weinstein’s advances during the 15-minute ride before he dropped her off at a gym in the West Village.
Sokola said she stayed in touch with Weinstein in 2006 — in the lead up to a third alleged assault — in part because she was still trying to make it in the movie business. And Weinstein actually hooked her up with a part as an extra in “The Nanny Diaries” that year, where she met actress Scarlett Johansson.
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Later, in May 2006, when she was 19, Sokola took her sister, Ewa Sokola, to the meeting with Weinstein because she wanted to impress the older cardiologist sibling and hoped Ewa would tell her mom how well her acting career was going, she explained to the jury.
Kaja testified that Weinstein asked her to come up to his hotel room because he had a script to show her. But instead of reading a script, Weinstein orally “raped” her, she claimed.
Kaja testified that Weinstein put his hands on her shoulder and pushed her onto the bed.
“After that, he took off my shoes and he ripped off my stocking and my underwear,” she testified, before taking a pause to collect herself.
“I kept saying, please don’t, please stop — I don’t want this… But he didn’t listen, he didn’t listen.”
“I didn’t scream, I didn’t kick – I started saying, please stop, please stop,” Sokala to the jury. “I couldn’t move. He was too heavy, he was too strong. The force was too strong. I couldn’t move in any way.”
Harvey Weinstein accuser Kaja Sokola heads into court. Steven HirschShe said the encounter made her feel lost, like “my soul was removed from me.”
Sokola also told the panel members that she won a $3 million settlement in her lawsuit against Disney, Miramax and Weinstein’s brother and business partner, Bob Weinstein. She said she also received another $475,000 from a victim compensation fund.
Sokola is testifying publicly for the first time against Weinstein, who is facing sex crime charges and up to 25 years behind bars if convicted.
The 2006 alleged assault is the only one tied to one of the charges against Weinstein. The other two alleged incidents from 2002 and 2004 are not charged crimes.
Sokola’s testimony is expected to continue again Friday morning.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty.
The ex-film magnate was originally convicted at trial in 2020, but that conviction was overturned last year. Sokola, unlike other alleged victims, did not testify at the first trial.






