Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggis was recognized Thursday, November 10, responsible for a rape committed on an advertising agent in January 2013. He will have to pay his victim 7.5 million dollars (7.38 million dollars), while jurors in that New York civil court also plan to award additional punitive damages.
The 69-year-old director, whose liability trial began on October 19, has been accused since December 2017 by Haleigh Breest, working in the cinema, of having raped her when she was 26 years old. In the process, in the midst of a #metoo wave of liberation of speech on sexual violence and sexism against women, Paul Haggis had been targeted by accusations of sexual assault by three other women.
But he appeared in New York only for the facts denounced by Haleigh Breest, which the filmmaker has always denied. He is not being prosecuted for these rape charges. “I will continue, with my team, to fight to rehabilitate my name”he said as he left the courthouse.
During the civil trial, the filmmaker’s lawyers suggested that Haleigh Breest’s complaint had been guided by the Church of Scientology, with which Paul Haggis had broken up and which he has since criticized. A thesis swept away by the plaintiff’s lawyers.
Arrested in June on suspicion of sexually assaulting another woman
In her complaint, Haleigh Breest said that on the evening of January 31, 2013, after a film screening in Manhattan, the director had insisted that she come and have a drink at his house, when she said she preferred to go out to a bar. Once in her apartment, Paul Haggis had made many advances to her before forcing her to perform oral sex and then raping her again.
“I am grateful that I had the opportunity to go to court to seek justice and establish accountability, and that the jury decided to follow the facts and believe me”rejoiced the complainant Haleigh Breest in a press release.
For his part, the director said Ms Breest initiated kissing and oral sex in an entirely consensual relationship. He said he couldn’t remember if they had sex.
Recently, last June, Paul Haggis was arrested in southern Italy, again on suspicion of sexual assault against a young woman, facts which he also denied.
Known for being one of the creators of the series Walker Texas RangerPaul Haggis received the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in 2006 for Collision. He was also the screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby, Memoirs of our fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima by Clint Eastwood, as well as episodes of the James Bond saga, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.