UPDATED with punitive damages, 1:45 PM: The jury in Paul Haggis’ sexual assault civil trial at the moment ordered him to pay $2.5 million in punitive damages to plaintiff Haleigh Breest. Added to the $7.5 million it awarded Thursday, when he was discovered liable, the Crash double Oscar winner now faces $10 million in damages.
Learn particulars of the case beneath.
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Outdoors courtroom, Haggis vowed stated: “Right now the jury realized what the opposing counsel has identified for years, which is that I’ve spent all the cash I’ve at my disposal. I’ve gutted my pension plan. I’ve lived on loans with a purpose to pay for this case in a really naíve perception in justice. Effectively, now we’ll see what the appeals courtroom will say. As a result of we’ll completely attraction. I can’t dwell with lies like this; I’ll die clearing my identify.”
His lawyer, Priya Chuadhry, stated exterior the courtroom: “All through this trial we weren’t allowed to inform the jury that Mr. Haggis is mainly penniless, and now the world is aware of. And we sit up for clearing his identify.”
Breest made no feedback exterior courtroom, however her attorneys Ilann Maazel and Zoe Saldana later launched an announcement: “”Within the wake of Friday’s determination to carry Mr. Haggis responsible for his actions, we’re happy to see the jury proceed to acknowledge the harms carried out to our consumer by awarding her punitive damages. Their determination sends a robust message that Mr. Haggis’ reprehensible habits won’t be tolerated in any approach. We’re pleased with our consumer, Haleigh Breest, for the braveness she confirmed in bringing this case ahead and publicly sharing the reality of what occurred to her. We hope the jury’s determination right here units a precedent for the way different #MeToo instances are determined shifting ahead.”
PREVIOUSLY, November 10: A New York jury at the moment discovered filmmaker Paul Haggis liable on all three counts of rape and sexual abuse in his remedy of Haleigh Breest, who left a celebration in Manhattan with him in 2013 after which sued the Crash Oscar winner in 2017 claiming he repeatedly pressured intercourse on her in his residence that night time.
The unanimous jury of 4 males and two girls — whose make-up modified on the primary day of deliberations — deliberated for almost six hours within the civil trial earlier than awarding Breest $7.5 million in compensation. It additionally really helpful punitive damages, the quantity of which will probably be determined Monday, November 14.
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Seated between his attorneys, Haggis — who faces no jail time as a result of this was not a prison continuing — seemed straight forward because the verdicts have been learn. He then stood together with his three grownup daughters and hugged one in all them, who was crying.
Standing together with his lawyer Priya Chaudhry and his relations exterior the courthouse, Haggis stated: “I’m clearly very dissatisfied within the outcomes. And I’m going to proceed to, with my crew, struggle to clear my identify. We’re going to maintain our choices as to what we’re going to do.”
Breest hugged her attorneys and stated as she exited that she was “very grateful.” She later launched an announcement by means of her attorneys: “I’m grateful that I had the chance to hunt justice and accountability in courtroom — and that the jury selected to comply with the information — and believed me. The best supply of consolation by means of this 5 12 months authorized journey has been the assist I felt from the ladies who bravely shared their very own tales and let me know I wasn’t alone.”
Breest’s attorneys Zoe Salzman and Ilann Maazel stated in an announcement: “We’re happy to see justice served for our consumer, Haleigh Breest. After the jury heard a mountain of plain proof towards Mr. Haggis, they did the proper factor and held him accountable for his deplorable habits. We commend Ms. Breest for the bravery it took to come back ahead. She stood up for herself and for all girls.”
Additionally within the hallway, Breest paused to hug her former therapist, Catherine Baker-Pitts, who handled Breest in 2017-19 and testified throughout the trial that Breest was affected by signs of trauma.
“Justice was served,” Baker-Pitts stated of the decision, including that Breest stepped “out of her consolation zone” to pursue the case, “and he or she trusted within the system.”
Baker-Pitts, who was Breest’s most seen and sometimes solely supporter within the courtroom, stated she hopes the result will assist Breest “restore a sense of security on the earth,” and encourage “religion within the energy of talking up — that it was value it.”
Right now’s verdicts have been the most recent judgment in a spate of instances rising out of a #MeToo motion that has referred to as out highly effective males within the leisure business as sexual abusers. The jury was requested to determine whether or not Haggis was one in all them. Breest and her attorneys sought to show that Haggis had pressured her to undergo intercourse and to carry out oral intercourse on him and pushed his fingers inside her at the same time as she stated “no.”
She spent 4 days in complete on the stand describing the encounter and defending her interpretation of it towards a skeptical cross-examination by a lawyer for Haggis, Priya Chaudhry. In closing arguments on Wednesday, Chaudhry requested jurors to make use of their “fabulous New York widespread sense” to see by means of Breest’s story.
Jurors dominated on three particular expenses: first-degree rape and two third-degree expenses of intercourse abuse and a prison sexual act beneath New York legislation. About one hour into their deliberations, jurors requested the choose for a number of items of trial testimony and proof together with texts between Breest and the good friend she contacted first, and deposition testimony by Breest and Haggis discussing vaginal intercourse.
Breest and Haggis each had testified that they went again to his residence after a movie-screening celebration on Jan. 31, 2013, the place Haggis, then 59, was a VIP visitor and Breest, then 26, was working as a contract publicist. Each agreed that Haggis turned a proposal of a trip residence for Breest in his employed automotive into an invite to his place, and that she deflected the invitation at first by suggesting they as an alternative go to a bar. She then agreed to go residence with him however stated she wouldn’t keep the night time, each testified.
Their testimony diverged from there. Breest stated she felt “pressured” to spend time after work with Haggis, a frequent visitor at occasions placed on by her boss, who fired her after she filed the lawsuit. Haggis testified that he and Breest had been flirting all night time, have been genuinely fascinated by one another and that Breest was playfully letting him know she was open to intercourse with him even when she wasn’t planning to remain over.
Haggis testified that the intercourse was consensual and, to the most effective of his reminiscence, confined to oral intercourse that Breest initiated. He stated that Breest by no means portrayed the encounter to him as anything till her lawsuit nearly 5 years later on the top of the #MeToo motion, after Haggis had referred to as film producer Harvey Weinstein a “predator” as girls within the movie business have been coming ahead with accounts of Weinstein sexually brutalizing them.
RELATED: Harvey Weinstein L.A. Rape Trial: “Bulk Of Case” May Be Completed By Thanksgiving Week, Protection Legal professional Says
He has referred to as the case a vendetta by the Church of Scientology, a secretive and rich non secular motion based by a science fiction novelist. Haggis stop the church in 2009 with harsh phrases for its strategies and spoke at size about his journey by means of and out of Scientology for a New Yorker profile and an HBO documentary.
His protection attorneys didn’t produce a single witness or piece of documentation in courtroom linking any of his accusers on to the church, however in closing arguments on Wednesday, Haggis lawyer Chaudhry stated jurors ought to contemplate the “robust circumstantial proof” of a Scientology position in accusations which have “completely destroyed him.”
The jury heard from about two dozen witnesses in all, together with Haggis, Breest and 4 Jane Does — Deadline shouldn’t be naming them — who stated Haggis sexually assaulted them, or tried to, in separate incidents between 1996 and 2015 after utilizing completely different ruses to get them alone. They aren’t events to the lawsuit towards Haggis, however a lawyer for Breest, Ilann Maazel, stated in closing arguments that they “give some perception into what his intent actually was” when he took Breest residence. Maazel referred to as Haggis a “psychopath” who deliberate and orchestrated his assault of Breest simply as he had carried out with the opposite 4 girls.
There have been dueling specialists on reminiscence, trauma and attitudes in the direction of rape victims — each with hyperlinks to courtroom instances that accused Weinstein and the actor Kevin Spacey of sexual abuse. Two spinal surgeons provided contrasting views on whether or not Haggis was even able to initiating forcible intercourse towards somebody resisting him bodily, provided that he was nonetheless recovering from an operation to restore two ruptured discs in his again.
Chaudhry, in a grinding, hours-long cross-examination that left Breest in tears, sought to point out jurors that the rape as she claimed it occurred was equal elements “fantasy,” as Chaudhry put it in closing arguments, and “not bodily doable.” She stated Breest had a number of alternatives to depart Haggis’ residence, and as an alternative she spent the night time.
Chaudhry depicted Breest as a troubled and emotionally immature girl who mistook “a clumsy one-night stand” with a well-known, achieved Hollywood determine for one thing extra, and felt humiliated when he confirmed no additional curiosity.
Chaudhry stated Breest’s texts to mates afterward, and emails to Haggis, present her response evolving from pleasure at having spent the night time with him to confusion at his disinterest, after which remorse and humiliation that led her to recast what occurred as rape.
One textual content from Breest learn, “As they are saying within the first wives membership don’t get mad get all the things,” referencing the 1996 revenge-comedy film The First Wives Membership.
“She’s not upset about what occurred in Paul Haggis’ residence that night time,” Chaudhry stated. “She’s upset that he by no means invited her again.”
Jurors additionally heard from a string of protection witnesses with connections to the Church of Scientology, together with the previous King of Queens star Leah Remini, who additionally hosted the Emmy-winning documentary tv sequence, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.
Remini and different former Scientologists, together with Haggis’ daughter Alissa, instructed jurors that the church by no means forgives its enemies and makes use of litigation and impossible-to-trace covert operations to undermine them. One ex-Scientist, a documentary movie producer, stated that shortly after Haggis left the church, a high-ranking Scientologist referred to as her for assist digging up filth on him however she refused.
“It’s the proper protection,” Maazel scoffed in his closing. “There’s no proof of it, so it have to be true.”
An ex-wife of Haggis, singer and actress Deborah Rennard, testified that Haggis was untrue and had greater than 20 affairs throughout their marriage however by no means was violent. Three different girls stated they continue to be mates with Haggis though they rejected his passes or romantic curiosity.
Haggis himself stated on the stand, “I’m a really flawed human being,” however denied raping or making an attempt to pressure himself sexually on anybody.
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