Two-time Oscar winner Paul Haggis has been found liable for raping a woman in 2013.
Haggis, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby (2004) and an Oscar winner for his screenplay and direction of Best Picture winner Crash (2004), was ordered to pay former publicist Haleigh Breest $7.5 million. That’s just for her compensation. The jury will decide the amount of the punitive damages next week.
There were never any criminal charges filed against Haggis. Breest filed her civil suit in 2017.
Breest says Haggis pressured her to return to his apartment after both attended a movie premiere. After they arrived, she says he raped her and forced her to perform oral sex.
Haggis doesn’t deny having sex with Breest, but says it was consensual.
Haggis’s defense was that 1) recent spine surgery would have made it impossible for him to force anyone to do anything, 2) the Church of Scientology was out to destroy him, and 3) Breest was bitter and looking for payback because Haggis showed no further interest in here after their encounter.
“I’m obviously very disappointed in the results,” Haggis said outside the courtroom. “And I’m going to continue to, with my team, fight to clear my name. We’re going to keep our options as to what we’re going to do.”
Working against Haggis was the fact that, at least according to media reports, he was unable to in any way connect Breest to Scientology.
Worse still, four other women testified that Haggis had sexually assaulted them:
The jury heard from about two dozen witnesses in all, including Haggis, Breest and four Jane Does — Deadline is not naming them — who said Haggis sexually assaulted them, or attempted to, in separate incidents between 1996 and 2015 after using different ruses to get them alone. They are not parties to the lawsuit against Haggis, but a lawyer for Breest, Ilann Maazel, said in closing arguments that they “give some insight into what his intent really was” when he took Breest home. Maazel called Haggis a “psychopath” who planned and orchestrated his assault of Breest just as he had done with the other four women.
Back in June, Haggis was arrest for a rape charge in Italy. The case was eventually dismissed.
After Breest’s 2017 lawsuit was filed, a quick scan of IMDB will tell you Haggis’s career came to almost a complete stop. Now that he’s been found liable of rape in court, it’s hard to see how the 69-year-old will recover his career or reputation.
Haggis also wrote the James Bond films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, and created the iconic Chuck Norris show Walker: Texas Ranger.
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