The civil trial in New York of Oscar-winning Canadian director Paul Haggis, accused by an advertising agent of rape in 2013, stated facts …
The civil trial in New York against Oscar-winning Canadian director Paul Haggis, accused by an advertising agent of rape in 2013, alleged facts he denies, opened on Wednesday.
The director of “Crash” (“Collision”) and screenwriter of “Million Dollar Baby” and “Casino Royale”, 69, arrived in court in the morning, an AFP photographer noted.
He has been accused since December 2017 by a film advertising agent, Haleigh Breest, of raping her in January 2013, when she was 26.
In the process, in the midst of a #metoo wave of free speech about sexual violence and sexism against women, the director was targeted by allegations of sexual assault by three other women. But she appears only in New York for the facts reported by Haleigh Breest.
More recently, last June, Haggis was arrested in southern Italy, again on suspicion of sexually assaulting a young woman, which he again denied.
According to several American media outlets, the director’s attorneys suggested on Wednesday to the New York People’s Court jury that Haleigh Breest’s complaint was led by the Church of Scientology, with whom Paul Haggis had broken up and has since criticized. A thesis swept away by the actor’s lawyers.
In his complaint, Haleigh Breest said that on the evening of January 31, 2013, after a film screening in Manhattan, the director had insisted that he come for a drink at his house, when he said he preferred to go out to a bar. Once in her apartment, Paul Haggis had made several advances to her before forcing her into oral sex and then raping her again.
Known for being one of the creators of the “Walker Texas Ranger” series, Paul Haggis received the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in 2006 for “Crash” (“Collision”). He was also the writer of Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, Memoirs of Our Fathers and Iwo Jima’s Letters, as well as episodes of the James Bond saga, “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace”.
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