A jury on Thursday found that Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis raped a former film industry spokeswoman in her Manhattan apartment in 2013 and ordered her to pay at least $7.5 million for the blame. It was determined that there was
Mr. Haggis, who wrote the screenplay for “Million Dollar Baby” and co-wrote and directed the back-to-back Best Picture winner “Crash,” met plaintiff Hayley Brest in a civil lawsuit. did. She worked at a movie premiere at her event in New York. In a lawsuit filed early in the #MeToo movement, she alleges Haggis forced her to perform oral sex, digitally penetrated and raped her after he invited her to his loft in Soho. Did her.
Mr. Haggis, 69 years old. movie in the 2000s, claimed that the sexual encounter with Ms. Brest was consensual. He will not face criminal charges in this case.
Brest, 36, filed a complaint under the New York City Council’s Victims of Gender Motivated Violence Protection Act of 2000. the court of appeals ruled The law can be used to pursue sexual assault allegations even if there is no other evidence that the defendant displayed hatred of the victim’s gender.
After nearly six hours of deliberation on whether the sexual contact was coerced or consensual, six jurors found the evidence in favor of Brest. his stature in Hollywood.
After the verdict was read out, Haggis looked at his daughters and said, “It’s okay.”
Haggis left the court in silence, along with his family and lawyers, and did not answer reporters’ questions about whether to appeal. Ms. Brest replied with two words, “I am very grateful.”
Breest was awarded $7.5 million in compensatory damages by a jury.
“I am grateful that I have been given the opportunity to seek justice and accountability in court, and that the jury has chosen to follow the facts and believe me,” Brest said in a post-judgment statement. added.
Earlier this year, in another case, Mr. Haggis Arrested on suspicion of sexual assault in Italy He was held in hotel custody for over two weeks before a judge ordered his release. He has denied the charges and prosecutors have not closed their investigation.
The 15-day trial in Manhattan Supreme Court included details of Mr. Haggis’ former life in Hollywood’s elite nightlife and the Church of Scientology.
Brest’s attorneys tried to convince the jury that her interactions immediately after the sex made it clear that Brest considered it an assault. Her defense focused on the more lighthearted messages she sent and other messages in her emails that expressed her desire to see Mr. Haggis again and initiated her correspondence. I was.
In a text message from Ms. Brest to a friend the day after the encounter, she said Ms. Haggis was “rowdy and aggressive” and “kept saying no.”
“I was like a trapped animal,” Brest testified.
Judge Sabrina Krause allowed Ms. Brest’s attorney to present the testimony of four other women. One of them accused Mr. Haggis of raping her in her 1990s. Others alleged that Haggis made aggressive and unwanted sexual advances. One woman said she touched her breasts in an attempt to escape.
In his testimony, Haggis denied allegations of rape, groping, and inappropriate or offensive behavior towards women. The defense pointed to a text Brest told a friend and lied about Brest’s encounter to extort money from filmmakers during a time of heightened public awareness of sexual assault allegations. claimed to have. at least. “
Much of the trial focused on Brest’s conflicting accounts on January 31, 2013, when he was working as a freelance publicist at the premiere of the movie Side Effect. A guest at her event, Mr. Haggis, drove her home in her car and then invited her to his apartment for drinks, she testified. When she suggested going to a bar instead of her, he insisted they go to his apartment and she agreed.
Brest testified that Haggis took off her tights after she forced him to kiss her in her apartment, despite her protests. After he forced her to perform oral sex and raped her, she fell asleep before getting up early in the morning.
“I thought I was going home!” Brest texted a friend that day.
Haggis said he and Brest flirted at an industry event months before they met. He admitted that after he first kissed her in his apartment, she repeatedly said, “No, I shouldn’t,” but he “made fun of” her attitude and said, It’s a little similar,” he said.
He felt like he was getting “complicated signals”, so he made it clear to her that she shouldn’t do anything she didn’t want to do. , “passionate” and started having oral sex there.
“She never showed me that it was not consensual,” Haggis testified.
Early in the legal proceedings, Mr. Haggis denied having had sex with Mr. Brest in court documents, but later said he did not remember having sex.
His lead attorney, Priya Chaudhry, questioned him about his suspicions that the Church of Scientology was behind all sexual misconduct allegations against him, 2011 New Yorker article On the filmmaker’s departure from the church: “I think in two years you’ll read something about me in a scandal that seems to have nothing to do with the church.”
Mr. Haggis admitted there was no evidence linking Mr. Brest to Scientology, but was a prominent member of the church before becoming an outspoken critic. “These people don’t leave fingerprints,” he testified. (Brest vehemently denies any relationship, as the church did in a statement.)
How Brest and Haggis responded to the visit was an important part of their testimony, and his attorney implied that she did not view the visit as coerced in the first place. I pointed to the message stating that
“I don’t really care. I hope I’m not sick now!!” Brest texted a friend about the encounter. On the witness stand, Mr. Brest elaborated on his thoughts at the time. I kept it to a minimum. “
Brest, who kept the tights he wore that night as potential evidence, testified that he visited Planned Parenthood about a month after the encounter to be tested for STDs. According to a questionnaire Ms Brest completed during her visit and shown to the jury by her attorney, when Ms Brest was asked if she had ever been coerced into a sexual act, she said yes. Haggis.
A psychotherapist who began treatment with Brest in June 2017, months before she filed her lawsuit, testified that Brest had told her about the night during treatment, and Haggis had a drink with her. After agreeing to drink, he shared that he had raped her. He initially thought it was a “friendly networking opportunity.”
Ilan M. Mazer’s Brest, the lead attorney in the case, told the court he had not gone to the police because he was afraid they would “mess up something.”
Because it was a civil trial, the jury did not have to decide beyond a reasonable suspicion that Mr. Haggis had raped Mr. Brest. They were asked if Ms. Brest had substantiated her claims with more material evidence. State court rules required her five of the six jurors to agree on the verdict.
Brest filed the lawsuit after hearing Haggis denounce film producer Harvey Weinstein after hearing testimony about sexual harassment and abuse. Published in The New York Times.
“That’s the definition of hypocrisy,” Brest testified of Haggis. “This man raped me and claims to be an advocate for women.”