Director Paul Haggis (“Crash”) has to pay 7.5 million after the rape

Canadian director and screenwriter Paul Haggis, 69, was convicted by a New York jury to pay $ 7.5 million in damages to an advertiser he raped in 2013 after a film premiered in New York.

The victim, Haleigh Breest (36), is one of four women who have come forward since 2017 on charges of sexual misconduct by the director. However, Breest is the only one who has also filed a lawsuit.

The jury finds it proven that Haggis invited her to his home after the film premiere and forced her to have oral sex. Evidence included text messages and emails between the two, in the weeks before and after the rape, and testimonies from other victims. According to Haggis, the sex between the two was consensual.

Unlike other notorious sexual assault lawsuits in the film industry, this is a civil, non-criminal lawsuit: the jury could inflict damages, but not a prison sentence. Two years ago, for example, film producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison in a criminal case, including for rape.

After the verdict, Breest said in a press release that he was “very grateful that the jury chose to follow the facts and believe me”. Haggis said he was “very disappointed” afterwards. “I will continue to fight with my team to rehabilitate my name.”

Haggis has been writing scripts for popular TV series such as .since the 1980s Different hits, and made a splash as a screenwriter and film director at the turn of this century. He wrote the film Million dollar baby girl by director Clint Eastwood, who won an Oscar for Best Picture in 2004. A year later, that award went to Accidenta film written and directed by Haggis.

In 2009, Haggis made headlines for her public break with the Church of Scientology, of which it has been a part for decades. He claimed that he could no longer justify the threats and the pursuit of money in the movement, which is popular in Hollywood.

Haggis and his lawyers now claim that this lawsuit is a Scientology revenge, although they did not provide evidence at the time of trial.