But that jury was never told about Kaja Sokola's claim. Prosecutors have said they still were investigating the allegation when Weinstein, a onetime movie tycoon-turned- #MeToo pariah, was convicted in February 2020 of charges based on other women's accusations.
On Wednesday, Sokola began to tell a new jury her story.
Sokola didn't look at Weinstein as she walked past him and onto the witness stand in a Manhattan courtroom where he is again on trial. An appeals court overturned his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction, sending those charges back for retrial, and prosecutors subsequently added another sexual assault charge based on Sokola's allegations.
As she began testifying about her life before the alleged 2006 assault, Weinstein looked toward her, with his right hand across his mouth.
Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. His lawyers contend that his accusers consented to sexual encounters with him in hopes of getting movie and TV opportunities, and the defence has emphasised that the women stayed in contact with him for a while after the alleged assaults.
The women, meanwhile, say the Oscar-winning producer used the prospect of show business work to prey on them.
Sokola, who is expected to continue testifying Thursday, hasn't been asked yet about Weinstein. Prosecutors have said she was introduced to him while on that 2002 modelling trip to New York.
In her lawsuits, Sokola said that shortly after she met Weinstein, he invited her to lunch to discuss her career but then sexually assaulted her. The lawsuits alleged he sexually harassed and emotionally abused her for years afterward.
The criminal charge stems from one instance when Sokola maintains that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel in May 2006.
Prosecutors have said it happened after Weinstein arranged for Sokola to be an extra in the film The Nanny Diaries and met her visiting older sister, whom she was trying to impress.
"She was proud of knowing him," her sister, cardiologist Dr. Ewa Sokola, told jurors Wednesday.
She said the three of them met in a hotel lobby, chatted about Italian movies and the heavyset Weinstein's heart health, and then he and the model left the table together.
Kaja Sokola was tense when she returned about a half-hour later — "like somebody waiting for the result of an exam" or the Oscars — but didn't say anything about the alleged sexual assault, Dr. Sokola told jurors.
She said she was shocked to learn about the claim over a decade later, when she read about it in a magazine article.
Weinstein's lawyers will get a chance to question Kaja Sokola in the coming days. In an opening statement in April, defence lawyer Arthur Aidala questioned why she waited years to come forward.
Prosecutors have argued that accusers were reluctant to speak up because of Weinstein's wealth and influence.
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