Paul Haggis convicted of rape, the director will have to pay 7.5 million dollars
A New York jury found him guilty of raping a 26-year-old woman in New York. In June, the filmmaker was accused by a young Englishwoman of another assault in Puglia, but the judges then reduced the charges against him
Paul Haggis, 69, sentenced in New York: he will have to pay 7.5 million dollarsPaul Haggis, the Oscar-winning Canadian director, has currently come clean from the allegations of sexual violence in Puglia, but not the previous ones that were brought against him in 2017 in New York. He was convicted of rape and will have to pay advertising agent Haleigh Breest at least $7.5 million. – laws
Michelle Hunziker, the emotion of becoming a grandmother: her voice is broken... Michelle Hunziker, the emotion of becoming a grandmother: her voice is broken...THE MANHATTAN - The civil trial took place in Manhattan and lasted just two weeks. Haggis, 69, won the Oscar for directing Crash and is the author of the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby , another Oscar-winning film. Haggis met Breest in 2013 when she was 26 and working as a publicist. The woman sued in the midst of the emotional wave unleashed by the MeToo movement. According to the accusation, the director had invited Breest to her loft in Soho, New York, where she had forced her to perform oral sex and then she had also raped her. Paul Haggis defended himself by claiming that it was a consensual act. In the past, the filmmaker had also declared that behind the denunciation there would be the maneuvers of the Church of Scientology, of which he had belonged and from which he had distanced himself by making heavy criticisms. The jury took about six hours to express themselves, accepting the thesis of Breest's defenders, but Haggis is not criminally charged. Haggis was in the courtroom when the sentence was handed down, along with his family. The troubles may not be over: the jurors will meet again on Monday to decide on the possible calculation of the so-called punitive damages.
Paul Haggis speaks: “My life was destroyed in a minute
IN OSTUNI - Last June, the Canadian director was arrested in Ostuni (Brindisi), but then released on July 4, on charges of sexual assault and aggravated bodily harm against a 29-year-old Englishwoman. The Lecce review court then reduced the charges brought against Haggis and raised doubts about the young woman's allegations, not excluding 'speculative intent'.
Source: oggi.it
