Jury: Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggis is liable for $7.5 million in rape

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury on Thursday ordered Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis to pay at least $7.5 million to a woman who accused him of rape in one of several #MeToo-era cases that the the behavior of Hollywood celebrities have brought to justice Fall. The jury also plans to award additional punitive damages.

Between sex and socializing on the red carpet with Scientology, the civil court case vacillated between Haggis, known for writing top Oscar winners “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash,” and Haleigh Breest, a publicist who served him at film premieres met in the early 2010s.

After hugging her lawyers, Breest said she was “very grateful” for the verdict as she left the court. In a statement released later, she said she was grateful “that the jury chose to follow the facts — and believed me.”

Haggis said he was “very disappointed with the results”.

“I will continue to fight with my team to clear my name,” he said as he exited the courthouse with his three adult daughters. One had cried on a sister’s shoulder at the sentencing hearing.

After a screening after-party in January 2013, Haggis Breest offered to drive him home and invited her to his New York apartment for a drink.

Breest, 36, said Haggis then subjected her to unwanted advances and eventually forced her to perform oral sex and raped her despite her pleas to stop. Haggis, 69, said the publicist was flirtatious, initiating kisses and oral sex in a completely consensual interaction, though he appeared “contradictory” at times. He said he couldn’t remember if they had intercourse.

After a day of deliberation, the jury sided with Breest, who said she suffered psychological and professional consequences from her encounter with Haggis. She sued in late 2017.

While she was awarded $7.5 million in damages for suffering, the jury concluded that punitive damages should also be awarded. The jury will return Monday for further trials to help them decide that amount.

The verdict came weeks after another civil jury in the federal courthouse next door ruled that Kevin Spacey did not sexually assault fellow actor and then-teen Anthony Rapp in 1986. Meanwhile, That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson and former film magnate Harvey Weinstein is standing separate trial on criminal rape charges in Los Angeles. Both deny the allegations, and Weinstein is appealing a conviction in New York.

All four cases followed the #MeToo wave of denunciations, disclosures and demands for accountability regarding sexual misconduct sparked by October 2017 news reports of decades-long allegations against Weinstein.

Breest, in particular, said she decided to sue Haggis because his public condemnations of Weinstein infuriated her.

Four other women also testified that they had experienced violent, unwelcome assault — and in one case rape — by Haggis in separate encounters since 1996. None of the four took legal action.

The Associated Press generally does not identify individuals who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Breest did.

Haggis denied all allegations. His defense, meanwhile, introduced jurors to several women – including ex-wife and former longtime “Dallas” actress Deborah Rennard – who said the writer-director took it easy when they dismissed his romantic or sexual advances.

During the three-week testimony, the trial examined text messages Breest sent to friends about what happened to haggis, emails between them before and after the night in question, and some differences between their testimony and what they said in early court filings.

The two sides debated whether Haggis was physically able to carry out the alleged attack eight weeks after undergoing spinal surgery. Psychology experts offered dueling perspectives on what have been called common misconceptions about rape victim behavior, such as the assumption that victims would later have no contact with their attackers.

And the jury heard extensive testimony about the Church of Scientology, the religion founded by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard in the 1950s. Haggis was a devotee for decades before publicly renouncing and denouncing Scientology in 2009.

Through testimony from Haggis and other ex-members, his defense argued that the church wanted to discredit him and may have had something to do with the lawsuit.

No witness said they knew that Haggis’ accusers or Breest’s attorneys had ties to Scientology, and his attorneys acknowledged that Breest himself had none. Still, Haggis attorney Priya Chaudhry tried to persuade the jury that there were “the footprints, though perhaps not the fingerprints, of Scientology involvement here.”

The church said in a statement that it was not involved, arguing that Haggis was trying to shame his accusers with an “absurd and patently false” claim. Breest’s attorneys, Ilann Maazal and Zoe Salzman, have called it “a shameful and unsupported conspiracy theory.”

Born in Canada, Haggis wrote episodes of such well-known series as “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Thirtysomething” in the 1980s. His film breaks came with “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash,” which he also directed and co-produced. Each film won Best Picture Oscars in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and Haggis also won a Screenwriting Oscar for Crash.

His other credits include writing the screenplays for the James Bond films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

—

Associated Press journalist Ted Shaffrey contributed.