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Paul Haggis filed enchantment motions for post-trial reduction on Wednesday after the two-time Oscar-winner was discovered responsible final month of violently raping a lady in his SoHo loft in 2013.
In newly filed courtroom documentsobtained by The Each day Beast, the Crash director’s legal professionals have requested the decide to reverse the decision or order a brand new trial in a 114-page movement, pointing to a “constellation of errors” on behalf of the courtroom that resulted in “extreme prejudice” in opposition to Haggis, finally “depriving him of a good trial.”
“Mr. Haggis didn't obtain a good trial,” Haggis’ legal professional, Priya Chaudhry, wrote within the movement filed on Wednesday night.
In November, a jury sided in favor of plaintiff Haleigh Breest, who had accused Haggis of forcibly raping her at his Manhattan penthouse following a pink carpet movie premiere in 2013—10 years in the past subsequent month. She was awarded a complete of $10 million, together with damages.
The case’s decide, Sabrina Kraus, had beforehand imposed a Dec. 14 deadline for Haggis to file the enchantment. On Wednesday, Haggis’ authorized group accused Breest’s authorized group of violating the foundations of proof and ignoring a courtroom’s pretrial ruling on the usage of propensity proof at trial.
“The Court docket erred in its rulings on the admissibility of proof, leading to extreme prejudice to Mr. Haggis,” Chaudhry added. “As well as, a constellation of different errors occurred, which, taken collectively, disadvantaged Mr. Haggis of considerable justice. Thus, Mr. Haggis is entitled to have this Court docket put aside the jury’s verdict and direct judgment in his favor, or else grant him a brand new trial.”
Haggis’ counsel particularly referred to the courtroom’s admitted testimony and sworn statements by 4 Canadian ladies who had additionally accused Haggis of raping them between 1996 and 2015 as “faulty” and “extremely prejudicial.”
At trial, Breest’s legal professionals, who painted Haggis as a “monster” and serial predator who used his fame and storytelling expertise to “prey” on a number of ladies, sought to incorporate the testimony of the 4 different victims to show Haggis’ intent—and bolster their claims—by demonstrating there was a long-established sample of sexual misconduct.
Haggis’ legal professionals, nonetheless, complained that three of the 4 Jane Does’ testimony, which was captured through a recorded deposition that was performed in courtroom, was not held to the identical evidentiary commonplace as dwell trial testimony.
“The place Mr. Haggis had the suitable to defend himself in opposition to one rape allegation, he was compelled to defend himself in opposition to 5 distinct sexual assault allegations,” Haggis’ enchantment acknowledged. “Consequently, this Court docket ought to put aside the jury’s verdict within the curiosity of justice, or alternatively, order a brand new trial that forestalls the Does’ testimony from being admitted into proof.”
Notably, Haggis’ legal professionals additionally argued that the courtroom erred in failing to confess into proof statements he’d beforehand given the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace—or the truth that he had initially reported the incident to regulation enforcement, not Breest.
Certainly, after Breest’s attorneys contacted Haggis proposing a $9 million out-of-court settlement associated to the rape allegations in 2013, Haggis notified police and filed a lawsuit of his personal, accusing Breest of extortion.
In addition they accused the courtroom of wrongly prohibitingHaggis from utilizing sure displays at trial.
“Every of those errors symbolize an impartial foundation to grant Mr. Haggis’ utility,” the enchantment added. “However taken collectively, their cumulative affect militates much more in favor of this Court docket setting apart the jury’s verdict within the curiosity of justice.”
Haggis is scheduled again in courtroom on Jan. 13.The Each day Beast has reached out to attorneys for each Haggis and Breest for remark.
Haggis, who long-denied the sexual assault accusations, testified in courtroom on his personal behalf over a number of days final month. Haggis, who grew tearful on the stand at occasions, frequently labeled the incident with Breest a consensual tryst that had unfolded after months of exchanging “flirtatious” emails.
Breest, in the meantime, had testified that Haggis digitally penetrated her with out her consent, claiming she advised him “no” and “cease” a number of occasions earlier than the filmmaker compelled oral intercourse on her after which violently raped her within the visitor bed room of his luxurious SoHo residence. Breest, a former publicist for New York’s Cinema Society, had come into Haggis’ orbit months earlier after assembly at a work-related occasion.
“He’s making an attempt to tug my tights down and I’m making an attempt to tug them up,” Breest advised the courtroom on Nov. 2. “He appeared just like the satan—he appeared completely completely different than I’d seen him earlier than.”
In Wednesday’s case filings, Haggis’ legal professionals zeroed in on the $10 million settlement Breest was awarded, as nicely, calling the sum “unreasonable.” They requested that the courtroom cut back Breest’s $7.5 settlement and void—or additionally decrease—the $2.5 million punitive damages she was awarded if his enchantment requesting a brand new trial or verdict reversal is denied.
Throughout trial, Haggis’ legal professionals acknowledged that the continued litigation charges for the case had almost despatched him bankrupt because it was filed half a decade in the past. Haggis, too, who claimed the case had “exhausted his financial savings,” wrote in courtroom papers he was compelled to borrow $700,000 in 2020 from his ex-wife, Deborah Rennard, who testified at trial on his behalf, to assist him cowl the hovering authorized prices, in keeping with separate courtroom paperwork.
“Mr. Haggis has no capability to pay what he already owes,” his legal professionals stated in courtroom on Nov. 14. “As soon as he pays the liabilities he presently has excellent earlier than your verdict, he can have nothing besides a pension fund that he shares along with his ex-wife.”
In current weeks, since Haggis was discovered responsible, Breest’s attorneys have sparred with the screenwriter’s counsel over the director’s property property, accusing Haggis of unlawfully transferring a rental property in Florida to a 3rd social gathering in March 2022 “in anticipation of an adversarial jury verdict.” In addition they identified that Haggis had additionally transferred possession in his Mercer Road residence in SoHo,the place the alleged rape occurred, to Rennard in October 2022 amid the trial’s opening.
Based on courtroom paperwork filed by Haggis and his legal professionals, nonetheless, the 2022 switch of possession really pertains to a 2020 divorce submitting with Rennard, which was solely not too long ago re-filed to appropriate Haggis’ social gathering function within the case, after he was initially misidentified in courtroom papers, per courtroom data. Haggis finally took out a $1 million lien in Rennard’s identify to be paid to her—in addition to the earlier $700,000 Haggis owes the Dallas actress—upon sale of the property.
The seventh ground penthouse suite at 169 Mercer Road, positioned within the coronary heart of New York’s SoHo district is valued at roughly $3.8 million, per a Zillow itemizing.
On Dec. 12, the case’s decide granted a pre-judgement restraint prohibiting Haggis from “transferring, promoting, gifting, diverting, or in any other case disposing of or interfering with any property in or exterior of New York through which he has any curiosity till last judgment is entered.”
Haggis’ final main main credit score was screenwriting 2013’s romantic drama Third Individual, starring Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody and James Franco. He stays the one screenwriter to ever bag back-to-back Oscars with Million Greenback Child and Crash in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
The Academy Awards have but to publicly handle the ruling in Haggis’ civil sexual assault case. Harvey Weinstein, Invoice Cosby and Roman Polanski, nonetheless, have all had their membership revoked for legal sexual misconduct.
Earlier this week, town council of London, Ontario—Haggis’ hometown—voted to rename a park commemorating the disgraced screenwriter. The transfer caps a four-year effort by town and group members to rename the park and distance itself from Haggis after Breest filed her case in 2017.
Haggis’ case, an outgrowth of the #MeToo period, had notably garnered a major quantity of nationwide media consideration on account of his standing as a star Scientology whistleblower. At trial, the Hollywood director tried to argue that the Church of Scientology manufactured the civil sexual assault case in opposition to him as retribution for publicly defecting from the controversial faith in 2009.
His legal professionals, nonetheless, finally struggled to show a direct hyperlink between Scientology and the 2013 sexual assault involving Breest, regardless of witness testimony from outstanding ex-Scientologists, actress Leah Remini and one-time church spokesperson Mike Rinder.
Breest, her attorneys, and the case’s 4 Jane Doe’s repeatedly denied having any affiliation with the Church of Scientology all through the trial. The Church of Scientology additionally strongly disavowed Haggis’ claims concerning the faith’s involvement within the case in previous statements made to The Each day Beast.
In June, Haggis was arrested in Italy when a British lady there alleged the Canadian-born director raped her “for days” at a lodge. Haggis spent 16 days detained in a lodge room on home arrest earlier than an Italian decide dismissed the case. He denied the allegations.