It looks like Harvey Weinstein has more trouble coming his way. (You remember Harvey, right? The guy who has done so much for women?) Even as female accusers are lining up around the block, another one has broken her silence and joined the other women going after the disgraced producer and alleged rapist and pedophile. This woman was, unsurprisingly, a model and aspiring actress. But when she experienced her alleged assault at Weinstein’s hands she was only sixteen years old. (New York Times)

At 16, the model moved to New York, leaving her hometown in Poland and her parents behind to chase dreams of becoming a Hollywood actress. At a modeling event in 2002, the teenager, Kaja Sokola, met the famous movie producer Harvey Weinstein. He found out she was interested in acting and invited her to lunch a few days later. Excited and eager, she thought the man behind “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” could open doors for her career. But instead of taking her to lunch, Ms. Sokola says, Mr. Weinstein brought her to his New York apartment, forcing her to massage his penis and blocking the door when she tried to escape.

One notable fact about this story has to do with the legal process allowing Sokola to move forward with this suit. New York State passes a lot of crazy laws and I regularly criticize the state government for that. But in this case, they seem to have gotten something right. This year they passed the Child Victims Act, a law allowing victims of childhood sexual abuse or assault to file civil suits against their attackers at any age for one year, starting in August of 2019.

This applies even if the statute of limitations has expired. Previously, victims only had until their 23rd birthday to file and Sokola is now 33 years old.

While the case is too old to qualify for a criminal prosecution, she will be able to sue for damages in a civil case. But here’s the next twist in the story. In 2002, when the alleged attack took place, Weinstein’s company was owned by Disney. That means she can go after their much deeper pockets rather than Weinstein’s personal fortune which has many women trying to tap it.

There’s one side note to Sokola’s story which is rather delicate in nature, but still worth mentioning. At the age of sixteen, her parents allowed her to leave their home in Poland and travel by herself to the United States to seek fortune and fame as a model. That’s when she ran into the accused serial rapist in New York City. This isn’t Sokola’s fault (obviously) but what were her parents thinking?

Based on all of the #MeToo accounts we’ve heard over the past couple of years, attractive young girls with stars in their eyes and dreams of Hollywood fame have always been extremely vulnerable to predators. And Weinstein was hardly the only one engaging in this type of abuse (though perhaps one of the most prolific). If Ms. Sokola hadn’t run into Harvey Weinstein she likely would have fallen victim to one of the others. So keep your children close, parents. Not all monsters are hiding in dark alleys. Some are in penthouses and sailing the Carribean on yachts.