(New York) A jury on Thursday sentenced screenwriter and director Paul Haggis to pay at least US$7.5 million to a woman who accused him of rape, in one of many #metoo-era cases that are making parade in court this fall of many bonzes of Hollywood.
Posted at 1:54 p.m.
Updated at 5:53 p.m.
The jury at the civil trial also ruled that additional punitive damages should be awarded to the plaintiff by the screenwriter and director of Crash, Oscar winner. The amount of damages will be decided later.
The complainant, Haleigh Breest, a public relations worker, had met Haggis in the early 2010s when she was handling film premieres. After an after-screening party in January 2013, the screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby offered to drive her home and invited her to his New York apartment for a drink.
PHOTO JOHN MINCHILLO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Complainant, Haleigh Breest
Mme Breest, 36, said Haggis then made unsolicited advances on her, before forcing her to perform oral sex and raping her, despite her pleas.
Haggis, 69, said the publicist was flirting with him and, while at times seeming “in conflict” with herself, had initiated kissing and oral sex, in an entirely consensual relationship. The director maintained that he did not remember if they had had sex.
The jurors sided with the version of Mme Breest, who said he suffered psychological and professional after-effects from his encounter with Haggis. She had filed a complaint at the end of 2017.
“I thought I was going to be driven home. I agreed to have a drink. What happened should never have happened. And it had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with him and his actions,” she told jurors.