UPDATED with punitive damages, 1:45 PM: The jury in Paul Haggis’ sexualassault civil trial today ordered him to pay $2.5 million in punitive damagesto plaintiff Haleigh Breest. Added to the $7.5 million it awarded Thursday,when he was found liable, the crash double Oscar winner now faces $10million in damages.
Read details of the case below.
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Outside court, Haggis vowed said: “Today the jury learned what the opposingcounsel has known for years, which is that I’ve spent all the money I have atmy disposal. I’ve gutted my pension plan. I’ve lived on loans in order to payfor this case in a very naive belief in justice. Well, now we’ll see what theappeals court will say. Because we will absolutely appeal. I can’t live withlies like this; I want that clearing my name.”
His attorney, Priya Chuadhry, said outside the courtroom: “Throughout thistrial we were not allowed to tell the jury that Mr. Haggis is basicallypenniless, and now the world knows. And we look forward to clearing his name.”
Breest’s lawyer Ilann Maazel told reporters, “The jury did the right thing,”and her other attorney Zoe Salzman said, “Justice was done.” Breest made nocomments outside court.
PREVIOUSLY, Nov 10: A New York jury today found filmmaker Paul Haggisliable on all three counts of rape and sexual abuse in his treatment ofHaleigh Breest, who left a party in Manhattan with him in 2013 and then suedthe crash Oscar winner in 2017 claiming he repeatedly forced sex on her inhis apartment that night.
The unanimous jury of four men and two women — whose makeup changed on thefirst day of deliberations — deliberated for nearly six hours in the civiltrial before awarding Breest $7.5 million in compensation. It also recommendedpunitive damages, the amount of which will be decided Monday, November 14.
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Seated between his lawyers, Haggis — who faces no jail time because this wasnot a criminal proceeding — looked straight ahead as the verdicts were read.He then stood with his three adult daughters and hugged one of them, who wascrying.
Standing with his lawyer Priya Chaudhry and his family members outside thecourthouse, Haggis said: “I’m obviously very disappointed in the results. AndI’m going to continue to, with my team, fight to clear my name. We’re going tokeep our options as to what we’re going to do.”
Breest hugged her lawyers and said as she exited that she was “very grateful.”She later released a statement through her attorneys: “I am grateful that Ihad the opportunity to seek justice and accountability in court — and that thejury chose to follow the facts — and believed me. The greatest source ofcomfort through this five year legal journey has been the support I felt fromthe women who bravely shared their own stories and let me know I wasn’talone.”
Breest’s lawyers Zoe Salzman and Ilann Maazel said in a statement: “We’repleased to see justice served for our client, Haleigh Breest. After the juryheard a mountain of undeniable evidence against Mr. Haggis, they did the rightthing and held him accountable for his deplorable behavior. We commend Ms.Breest for the bravery it took to come forward. She stood up for herself andfor all women.”
Also in the hallway, Breest paused to hug her former therapist, CatherineBaker-Pitts, who treated Breest in 2017-19 and testified during the trial thatBreest was suffering from symptoms of trauma.
“Justice was served,” Baker-Pitts said of the verdict, adding that Breeststepped “out of her comfort zone” to pursue the case, “and she trusted in thesystem.”
Baker-Pitts, who was Breest’s most visible and often only supporter in thecourtroom, said she hopes the outcome will help Breest “restore a feeling ofsafety in the world,” and inspire “faith in the power of speaking up — that itwas worth it.”
Today’s verdicts were the latest judgment in a spate of cases growing out of a#MeToo movement that has called out powerful men in the entertainment industryas sexual abusers. The jury was asked to decide whether Haggis was one ofthem. Breest and her lawyers sought to prove that Haggis had forced her tosubmit to intercourse and to perform oral sex on him and pushed his fingersinside of her even as she said “no.”
She spent four days in total on the stand describing the encounter anddefending her interpretation of it against a skeptical cross-examination by alawyer for Haggis, Priya Chaudhry. In closing arguments on Wednesday, Chaudhryasked jurors to use their “fabulous New York common sense” to see throughBreest’s story.
Jurors ruled on three specific charges: first-degree rape and two third-degreecharges of sex abuse and a criminal sexual act under New York law. About onehour into their deliberations, jurors asked the judge for several pieces oftrial testimony and evidence including texts between Breest and the friend shecontacted first, and deposition testimony by Breest and Haggis discussingvaginal sex.
Breest and Haggis both had testified that they went back to his apartmentafter a movie-screening party on Jan. 31, 2013, where Haggis, then 59, was aVIP guest and Breest, then 26, was working as a freelance publicist. Bothagreed that Haggis turned an offer of a ride home for Breest in his hired carinto an invitation to his place, and that she deflected the invitation atfirst by suggesting they instead go to a bar. She then agreed to go home withhim but said she wouldn’t stay the night, both tested.
Their testimony diverged from there. Breest said she felt “pressured” to spendtime after work with Haggis, a frequent guest at events put on by her boss,who fired her after she filed the lawsuit. Haggis testified that he and Breesthad been flirting all night, were genuinely interested in each other and thatBreest was playfully letting him know she was open to sex with him even if shewasn’t planning to stay over.
Haggis testified that the sex was consensual and, to the best of his memory,confined to oral sex that Breest initiated. He said that Breest neverportrayed the encounter to him as anything else until her lawsuit almost fiveyears later at the height of the #MeToo movement, after Haggis had calledmovie producer Harvey Weinstein a “predator” as women in the film industrywere coming forward with accounts of Weinstein sexually brutalizing them.
RELATED: Harvey Weinstein LA Rape Trial: “Bulk Of Case” Could Be Finished ByThanksgiving Week, Defense Attorney Says
He has called the case a vendetta by the Church of Scientology, a secretiveand wealthy religious movement founded by a science fiction novelist. Haggisquit the church in 2009 with harsh words for its methods and spoke at lengthabout his journey through and out of Scientology for a New Yorker profileand an HBO documentary.
His defense lawyers did not produce a single witness or piece of documentationin court linking any of his accusers directly to the church, but in closingarguments on Wednesday, Haggis lawyer Chaudhry said jurors should consider the“strong circumstantial evidence” of a Scientology role in accusations thathave “utterly destroyed him.”
The jury heard from about two dozen witnesses in all, including Haggis, Breestand four Jane Does — Deadline is not naming them — who said Haggis sexuallyassaulted them, or attempted to, in separate incidents between 1996 and 2015after using different ruses to get them alone. They are not parties to thelawsuit against Haggis, but a lawyer for Breest, Ilann Maazel, said in closingarguments that they “give some insight into what his intent really was” whenit took Breest home. Maazel called Haggis a “psychopath” who planned andorchestrated his assault of Breest just as he had done with the other fourwomen.
There were dueling experts on memory, trauma and attitudes towards rapevictims — both with links to courtroom cases that accused Weinstein and theactor Kevin Spacey of sexual abuse. Two spinal surgeons offered contrastingviews on whether Haggis was even capable of initiating forcible sex againstsomeone resisting him physically, given that he was still recovering from anoperation to repair two ruptured discs in his back.
Chaudhry, in a grinding, hours-long cross-examination that left Breest intears, sought to show jurors that the rape as she claimed it happened wasequal parts “fantasy,” as Chaudhry put it in closing arguments, and “notphysically possible .” She said Breest had multiple opportunities to leaveHaggis’ apartment, and instead she spent the night.
Chaudhry depicted Breest as a troubled and emotionally immature woman whomistook “an awkward one-night stand” with a famous, accomplished Hollywoodfigure for something more, and felt humiliated when he showed no furtherinterest.
Chaudhry said Breest’s texts to friends afterward, and emails to Haggis, showher reaction evolving from excitement at having spent the night with him toconfusion at his disinterest, and then regret and humiliation that led her torecast what happened as rape.
One text from Breest read, “As they say in the first wives club don’t get madget everything,” referencing the 1996 revenge-comedy movie The First WivesClub.
“She’s not upset about what happened in Paul Haggis’ apartment that night,”Chaudhry said. “She’s upset that he never invited her back.”
Jurors also heard from a string of defense witnesses with connections to theChurch of Scientology, including the former King of Queens star Leah Remini,who also hosted the Emmy-winning documentary television series, Leah Remini:Scientology and the Aftermath.
Remini and other former Scientologists, including Haggis’ daughter Alissa,told jurors that the church never forgives its enemies and uses litigation andimpossible-to-trace covert operations to undermine them. One ex-Scientist, adocumentary film producer, said that shortly after Haggis left the church, ahigh-ranking Scientologist called her for help digging up dirt on him but sherefused.
“It’s the perfect defense,” Maazel scoffed in his closing. “There’s noevidence of it, so it must be true.”
An ex-wife of Haggis, singer and actress Deborah Rennard, testified thatHaggis was unfaithful and had more than 20 affairs during their marriage butnever was violent. Three other women said they remain friends with Haggis eventhough they rejected his passes or romantic interest.
Haggis himself said on the stand, “I’m a very flawed human being,” but deniedraping or attempting to force himself sexually on anyone.
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