Steve Granitz
A former publicist who has accused ex-Scientologist and director Paul Haggis of raping her in 2013, instructed a jury on Thursday morning in regards to the second she says the Crash author cornered her in a visitor bed room of his Manhattan penthouse and tried to forcibly take away her garments.
“He’s making an attempt to drag my tights down and I’m making an attempt to drag them up,” Haleigh Breest testified. “He regarded just like the satan—he regarded completely completely different than I’d seen him earlier than.”
Breest, 36, who took a sworn oath earlier than the jury at 9:45 a.m., testified at size in regards to the chain of occasions that led her into Haggis’ orbit in January 2013—and later his luxurious loft the place she claimed the Canadian screenwriter pressured oral intercourse on her and raped her following an after celebration occasion for the premiere movie screening of director Steven Soderbergh’s 2013 thriller Facet Results.
Breest, who labored at Cinema Society from 2009 till she was let go in 2017, produced movie premieres and red-carpet occasions routinely attended by high-profile celebrities like Mick Jagger, Madonna, and Brad Pitt. She mentioned she met Haggis at such a piece occasion in 2012.
Paul Haggis walks out of courtroom on Thursday.
Dorian Geiger
Because the occasion’s after-party wrapped up, Breest testified that Haggis supplied her a experience residence to her Chelsea house. She mentioned earlier than getting right into a black SUV pushed by a automobile service chauffeur, Haggis invited her again to his house for a glass of wine. Breest mentioned the provide made her uncomfortable—she initially refused, as a substitute suggesting the pair go to a bar. Haggis, nonetheless, she insisted, turned agitated.
“He mentioned, ‘come over for a drink, I simply acquired off a protracted flight and I’m very drained,’” Breest recalled.
Due to Haggis’ Hollywood stature—and the truth that he was shut pals along with her boss, Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir—Breest mentioned she “felt extra stress to say ‘sure.’” She mentioned she agreed however made it clear she wouldn’t be “sleeping” in SoHo that night time.
“I felt extra stress to say sure,” Breest mentioned. “He's essential, he's a good friend of my boss, and I didn’t wish to make him an enemy.”
Movie director Paul Haggis (R) arrives at New York Supreme Court docket for his trial.
ANGELA WEISS
After driving an elevator to Haggis’ top-floor suite on Mercer Road, the Million Greenback Child author supposedly poured Breest a glass of white wine and made small discuss. Breest says he then pinned her to his kitchen fridge within the upscale loft and commenced forcibly kissing her.
“I used to be terrified,” Breest testified.
As she tried to withstand his advances, Breest recalled Haggis uttering, “You’re fearful of me, aren’t you?”
Haggis then requested how outdated she was whereas allegedly holding her towards the fridge. Breest replied she was 26.
“‘Don’t act like a fucking 18-year-old,’” she mentioned an offended Haggis instructed her earlier than trying to kiss her once more.
“[He] was slobbering throughout my face, my mouth was closed and I used to be turning my head away,” Breest mentioned. “I used to be startled and after a pair seconds I broke out of his maintain.”
Haggis, she mentioned, later ripped off her tights, costume, and sweater and compelled her to have oral intercourse with him.
“He was bare in entrance of me along with his erect penis, demanding me ‘put my dick in your mouth’—it was terrifying,” Breest mentioned in courtroom.
Haggis, who later claimed he’d had a vasectomy, then placed on a condom, she mentioned.
“He began jamming himself into my mouth,” Breest testified. “He was straddling my face and he did it repeatedly. I used to be gagging.”
Haggis, she mentioned eliminated the condom seconds later and raped her following a short wrestle within the house’s visitor bed room.
“I used to be like a trapped animal—there was nothing for me to do,” she mentioned.
After the alleged rape ended, Breest instructed the jury she feigned being asleep within the hopes it might de-escalate the scenario and finally enable her to flee.
Breest mentioned she awoke nude and alone within the visitor bed room the next morning, gathered her belongings, and left Haggis’ loft. She went to her Chelsea house, rushed to work, and texted a detailed good friend and former roommate in regards to the alleged rape. The 2 later spoke on the telephone. Screenshots of their exchanges, in addition to images of Haggis’ house, had been displayed for the jury. The roommate, who lived in San Francisco on the time, is anticipated to testify on Breest’s behalf as trial proceedings play out.
Breest’s attorneys have mentioned the alleged incident scarred her so deeply that she’s allegedly solely tried to have intercourse as soon as because the episode occurred almost 10 years in the past. Her authorized crew claims the occasion finally led to a post-traumatic stress dysfunction analysis.
“Haleigh’s testimony is highly effective, credible… and I’m glad she’s lastly having an opportunity to testify,” Breest’s lawyer Ilann Maazel instructed The Each day Beast exterior courtroom on Thursday. “I feel what she is doing is extraordinarily tough.”
Haggis has long-denied Breest’s accusations. The Canadian screenwriter alleges the encounter was consensual. His attorneys had beforehand argued Haggis was bodily incapable of sexually assaulting Breest as a result of he’d suffered a again damage and required a brace.
Former Scientologists Paul Haggis and actress Leah Remini.
Debra L Rothenberg
Notably, Haggis’ authorized crew are arguing the case has been manufactured by the Church of Scientology in retribution for defecting from the faith in 2009.
Maazel reiterated that Breest was by no means a member of the Church of Scientology. He additionally refuted claims raised by Haggis’ attorneys that the case—and his legislation agency—had been immediately bankrolled by the Church. Previous to the jury being seated Thursday, Maazel blasted Haggis’ protection crew, telling Choose Sabrina Kraus that the Hollywood screenwriter's attorneys had been “smearing” his fame with the “fabricated” Scientology claims.
“In fact not, it’s ridiculous,” Maazel acknowledged. “Haleigh has nothing to do with the Church. That complete protection is contrived, phony, ridiculous, embarrassing.”
4 different girls have additionally come ahead to accuse Haggis of raping them. On Wednesday, the long-awaited trial opened with the testimony of the primary of 4 Jane Does. The girl, who requested to not be publicly recognized, instructed the courtroom how the “dead-eyed” director raped her on the ground of her boss’ workplace on-set on the present of the Canadian tv crime drama “Due South.”
“It was very creepy,” the girl testified. “It was like he was in assault mode.”