Oscar-winning Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggis was found Thursday, November 10 responsible for the rape in 2013 of a woman, to whom he will have to pay 7.5 million dollars. The director of Crash (Collision), 69, was tried by a civil jury of the New York Supreme Court, after a liability trial that began on October 19.
He has been accused since December 2017 by an advertising agent, Haleigh Breest, working in the cinema, of having raped her in January 2013, when she was 26 years old. The filmmaker has always denied the facts and is not being prosecuted for these rape charges.
In the process, in the midst of a #MeToo wave of freedom of speech on sexual violence and sexism against women, the filmmaker had been targeted by accusations of sexual assault by three other women. More recently, in June, Paul Haggis was arrested in southern Italy, again on suspicion of sexual assault against a young woman, facts which he has again denied.
During the civil trial, the filmmaker’s lawyers suggested on Wednesday before the popular jury of the New York court that Haleigh Breest’s complaint had been guided by the Church of Scientology, with which Paul Haggis had broken up and which he criticized. from. A thesis swept away by the plaintiff’s lawyers.
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 Haleigh Breest in a press release.
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 Crash (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.