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United StatesFound guilty of rape, Paul Haggis will have to pay millions to his victim
Canadian director Paul Haggis was found guilty on Thursday in New York of raping an advertising agent in 2013 for which he will have to pay $7.5 million.
Paul Haggis received the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in 2006 for “Crash” (“Collision”).
AFP
Oscar-winning Canadian director Paul Haggis was found Thursday by a New York civil court responsible for the rape of an advertising agent in 2013 to which he will have to pay 7.5 million dollars (7.25 million francs).
The director of “Crash” (“Collision”) and screenwriter of “Million Dollar Baby” and “Casino Royale”, 69, was tried by a civil jury of the New York Supreme Court, at the end of a trial for responsibility started on October 19. He has been accused since December 2017 by an advertising agent, Haleigh Breest, who works in film, of raping her in January 2013, when she was 26 years old.
#Me too
In the process, in the midst of a #MeToo surge in free speech about sexual assault and sexism against women, the director had come under fire with allegations of sexual assault by three other women. But he only appeared in New York for the facts denounced by Haleigh Breest, which the director has always denied. He has not been prosecuted for these rape charges.
More recently, last June, Paul Haggis was arrested in southern Italy, again on charges of sexually assaulting a young woman, facts he has again denied. During the civil trial, the director’s attorneys suggested in New York City court Wednesday that Haleigh Breest’s complaint had been spearheaded by the Church of Scientology, with whom Paul Haggis had broken and from which he has criticized. A thesis swept away by the plaintiff’s lawyers.
Academy Award in 2006
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 go to his house for a drink, when she said she would rather go out to a bar. Once in her apartment, Paul Haggis made many advances on 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,” exulted actor Haleigh Breest in a statement.
Known for being one of the creators of the “Walker Texas Ranger” series, Paul Haggis received the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in 2006 for “Crash” (“Collision”). He also wrote Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, Memoirs of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima as well as James Bond episodes ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Quantum of Solace’.
(AFP)
