REUTERS
Each side got here out swinging throughout closing arguments within the trial of Oscar-winning director and author Paul Haggis as a jury retired to find out his destiny.
Haggis’ legal professionals clashed with counsel for plaintiff Haleigh Breest, the previous publicist who accused the 69-year-old Canadian filmmaker of sexually assaulting her at his penthouse suite after a movie premiere afterparty almost 10 years in the past.
Priya Chaudhry, Haggis’ protection counsel, took goal at Breest in her closing arguments, framing the 36-year-old as an “absolute liar” and “jealous girl” whose flirtatious crush on Haggis finally turned vindictive when he “politely rejected” her following a one-night stand together with her consumer.
“There are three ‘r’ phrases that occurred right here: rejection, remorse and revenge,” Chaudhry advised the jury. “And none of those ‘r’ phrases are rape.”
“Paul Haggis is just not Harvey Weinstein,” she advised jurors Wednesday. “He has by no means been Harvey Weinstein. He won't ever turn out to be Harvey Weinstein.”
Through the trial, which has spanned 15 days, the court docket heard testimony from each Breest and Haggis, in addition to 4 different Canadian ladies who additionally accused the Million Greenback Child author of raping or trying to sexually assault them throughout incidents between 1996 and 2015.
Paul Haggis along with his two Oscars in 2006.
David Livingston
On Wednesday afternoon, Breest’s lawyer, Ilann Maazel struck again, portray Haggis a serial predator and manipulator, who used his fame and storytelling expertise to prey on Breest and the case’s 4 different alleged victims.
“We now have to face the chilly, arduous reality—Paul Haggis is a monster,” Maazel advised the jury. “He's a psychopath. He's crafty and deceitful and manipulative. He sexually assaulted 5 ladies and he has the gall to stand up on that stand and play the sufferer.”
Maazel stated that Haggis, an “essential Hollywood director” pressured Breest into having a drink with him at his dwelling and that Haggis turned agitated when she advised him “cease.”
“‘No,’ by no means means no to Paul Haggis,” Maazel stated.
He added: “It’s a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Haggis.”
At one level, Maazel advised Haggis deserved a 3rd Oscar for his “efficiency” on the stand.
“This can be a horror movie by Paul Haggis and solely you may finish it,” Maazel advised jurors, his voice rising audibly, earlier than Beeest’s staff rested its case Wednesday.
Jurors will now determine whether or not Haggis raped Breest at his New York luxurious high-rise in 2013.
Haggis has long-maintained the incident involving Breest was consensual. He’s denied any sexual misconduct involving 4 Jane Does.
Chaudhry acknowledged that Breest gave conflicting accounts of the 2013 incident in court docket data and on the witness stand, suggesting to jurors the rape accuser had probably invented the account as a fantasy—or had misremembered the occasion totally.
“They need you to assume the place there’s smoke there’s fireplace, however generally there's only a smoke machine,” Chaudhry stated.
Chaudhry advised jurors that Breest filed the lawsuit in opposition to her celeb consumer looking for a payday. She seized on the actual fact Breest by no means alerted authorities over the incident—and as a substitute stated Breest waited 4 years to file her lawsuit.
“Ms. Breest is aware of that if she went to the police and so they didn’t consider her, she knew it might harm her possibilities of getting Paul Haggis’ cash from you,” Chaudhry advised the jury. “This trial isn’t about justice for her—it’s a blatant money seize.”
Chaudhry additionally accused Breest of falsely harnessing the momentum of the #MeToo motion to bolster her claims. She repeatedly cited convicted intercourse offender and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who in 2013, Haggis had disavowed on social media and in newspapers, feedback which in flip motivated Breest to file lawsuit in opposition to Haggis.
In June, Haggis was additionally briefly positioned below home arrest in Italy whereas attending a movie competition after an unidentified British girl accused him of raping her “for days” at a southern Italy lodge. His legal professionals, who denied these accusations as properly, countered that the sufferer had sought a job in a James Bond movie. Haggis, who beforehand co-wrote 007 blockbusters On line casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, was later freed after an Italian choose dominated there wasn’t ample proof to permit the case to proceed to trial.
As his lawyer spoke, Haggis, wearing a black go well with, deep blue costume shirt, and a navy tie, stoically noticed, periodically taking sips from a yellow thermos on the desk in entrance of him. The embattled 69-year-old producer spent three days on the stand testifying in decrease Manhattan final week, contradicting and rejecting a lot of his accuser’s account.
Haggis, who at occasions wept on the stand throughout his testimony, described Breest, then 26, as a “cartoony” and “bashful” “Betty Boop,” whom he got here to adore after months of buying and selling “flirtatious” work-related emails.
Haggis claimed Breest despatched “blended indicators” however willingly gave him oral intercourse after the pair caught a chauffeured SUV dwelling following a 2013 crimson carpet occasion attended by various distinguished celebrities together with Jude Legislation, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones.
(L-R) Actors Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and director Paul Haggis in 2015.
Craig Barritt
The filmmaker, who has solid himself as a sufferer within the case, stated the drawn-out litigation has “decimated” his funds and derailed his profession. His legal professionals additionally argued that Haggis, who had been sporting a again brace on the time of the incident involving Breest resulting from a current surgical procedure, would have been bodily incapable of finishing up the violent rape.
In the meantime, Breest, herself additionally provided compelling testimony earlier at trial, at occasions in graphic element, recounting how Haggis straddled her face whereas orally raping her earlier than ripping off her tights and sexually assaulting her in a visitor bed room at his SoHo loft. Breest stated she felt like a “trapped animal,” throughout the encounter.
“He’s making an attempt to tug my tights down and I’m making an attempt to tug them up,” Breest testified. “He regarded just like the satan—he regarded completely totally different than I’d seen him earlier than.”
At occasions, below cross examination, nonetheless, Haggis’ reminiscence of the encounter appeared obscure. His legal professionals additionally struggled to elucidate how his seminal fluid wound up on tights Breest wore the evening of the alleged tryst, regardless of Haggis testifying he had no reminiscence of getting vaginal intercourse Breest or whether or not or if he had ejaculated in any respect that evening.
Angela Butler, a forensic DNA knowledgeable, testified at trial that there was a excessive chance that DNA discovered within the inside crotch of Breest’s tights belonging to Haggis was his seminal fluid. Chaudhry, in the meantime, identified earlier that the DNA of 4 different males had been discovered on the tights in query.
The incident, Breest testified, exacerbated crippling anxiousness and physique picture points, which her legal professionals advised jurors persist to at the present time. Breest advised jurors the alleged rape hijacked her relationship life—scarring her so deeply that she claimed she solely tried sexual activity as soon as for the reason that suspected encounter with Haggis.
Breest’s former therapist, Dr. Catherine Baker-Pitts, in addition to Dr. Lisa Rocchio, an impartial forensic psychologist, who coincidentally served as an knowledgeable witness at Kevin Spacey’s current federal sexual assault go well with, testified that the alleged occasion triggered post-traumatic stress dysfunction within the 36-year-old, explaining that her signs have been according to that of sexual abuse survivors.
Breest is in search of unspecified damages.
The case, which was filed in 2017 on the heels of the #MeToo motion, garnered important media consideration notably as a result of Haggis, an ex-Scientologist and whistleblower of the controversial faith, argued Breest—and the 4 Canadian Jane Does—had been paid off by the Church of Scientology to manufacture the allegations in opposition to him in a coordinated effort to smear and bankrupt him as retribution for publicly defecting from the church in 2009.
In September, the case’s presiding choose, Hon. Sabrina Kraus dominated Haggis’ authorized staff might use the Scientology protection at trial.
Academy Award profitable producer/screenwriter Paul Haggis seems with Actor/author/producer Leah Remini.
Debra L Rothenberg
Quite a lot of former Scientologists and celebrities additionally testified at trial in protection of Haggis, together with each sitcom actress Leah Remini and former Scientology govt Mike Rinder, who co-hosted the Emmy-winning A&E collection Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.
“One can by no means inform the story of Paul Haggis with out speaking about Scientology,” Chaudhry acknowledged Wednesday. “For many of his life—and for the remainder of his life—Scientology is completely connected to him like a darkish shadow. Scientology would be the first thought he has when somebody breaks into his condominium. It should all the time be round a darkish nook and that's all the time true for Paul. That's true for Mike Rinder. That's true Leah Remini. You can't inform these individuals’s tales with out speaking about Scientology.”
Haggis’ staff, nonetheless, struggled to attract, a transparent, direct connection to their claims of Scientology’s involvement within the case to the rape he’d been accused of. Breest, her attorneys, and the case’s 4 different alleged victims have all denied any affiliation with the faith.
On Wednesday, Maazel advised jurors that Haggis’ Scientology protection was a contrived, malicious, and determined try and distract from the sexual assault allegations at hand.
“The Church of Scientology is a foul group and a few of them need to discover grime on Paul Haggis,” Maazel stated. “The church is a cult and Mr. Haggis is a rapist. Each are true.”
The Church of Scientology has additionally denied involvement within the sexual assault case—or having any connection to any of the civil go well with’s victims in a press release despatched to The Each day Beast in October.
Shortly earlier than 4:50 p.m., Kraus dismissed the jury panel to provoke deliberations starting Thursday morning.
If Haggis is discovered liable within the rape case, jurors will decide the potential damages owed by the screenwriter. Previous to submitting the go well with in 2017, Breest’s legal professionals had unsuccessfully demanded a $9 million settlement from Haggis.
Haggis, who lit a cigarette on the court docket steps after his trial concluded, declined to remark as he exited the courtroom for the day.