JURY ORDERS FILMMAKER PAUL HAGGIS TO PAY $7.5M IN RAPE SUIT:
Veering from sex to red-carpet socializing to Scientology, the civil court trial pitted Haggis, known for writing best picture Oscar winners “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash,” against Haleigh Breest, a publicist who met him while working at movie premieres in the early 2010s.
After hugging her lawyers, Breest said she was “very grateful” for the verdict as she left court. In a statement released later, she said she was thankful “that the jury chose to follow the facts — and believed me.”
Haggis said he was “very disappointed in the results.”
“I’m going to continue to, with my team, fight to clear my name,” he said as he left the courthouse with his three adult daughters. One had wept on a sister’s shoulder as the verdict was delivered.
After a screening afterparty in January 2013, Haggis offered Breest a lift home and invited her to his New York apartment for a drink.
Breest, 36, said Haggis then subjected her to unwanted advances and ultimately compelled her to perform oral sex and raped her despite her entreaties to stop. Haggis, 69, said the publicist was flirtatious and, while sometimes seeming “conflicted,” initiated kisses and oral sex in an entirely consensual interaction. He said he couldn’t recall whether they had intercourse.
After a day of deliberating, jurors sided with Breest, who said she suffered psychological and professional consequences from her encounter with Haggis. She sued in late 2017.
While awarding her $7.5 million to compensate for suffering, the jury concluded that punitive damages should also be awarded. Jurors return Monday for more court proceedings to help them decide that amount.
The verdict came weeks after another civil jury, in the federal courthouse next door, decided that Kevin Spacey didn’t sexually abuse fellow actor and then-teenager Anthony Rapp in 1986. Meanwhile, “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson and former movie magnate Harvey Weinstein are on trial, separately, on criminal rape charges in Los Angeles. Both deny the allegations, and Weinstein is appealing a conviction in New York.
If these trials keep up, Hollywood could begin to get a ever-so-slight reputation of being a sex-grooming gang.