Paul Haggis’ civil rape trial got underway Wednesday in New York, where the Oscar-winning “Crash”Director claims Scientology and greed are the reasons behind claims of rape made by a publicist, and three other women alleging that he sexually assaulted them in separate incidents. These incidents date back to 2013.
Haleigh Breest, a publicist, began opening statements in her case. She is suing Haggis to recover unspecified damages. Her own text messages were used by both lawyers. Breest, who was an events journalist when she met Haggis in New York in 2013, chose to self-identify in civil litigation.
Breest claims that Haggis forced Breest to have oral sex with him and raped it after she agreed to meet him at his apartment for drinks. Haggis has maintained that the entire encounter was consensual, and that the lawsuit is just Breest’s latest attempt at getting a payout.
Breest never went to police, but texted friends about the encounter at the time – messages used both for and against her case in court Wednesday.
“He was so rough and aggressive. Never, ever again … And I kept saying no,” Breest’s lawyer Zoe Salzman read for the jury, according to The Associated Press. Breest, she said, finally came out when she saw Haggis slandering Harvey Weinstein.
“The hypocrisy of it made her blood boil,” Salzman said.
Haggis’ attorney, reading from that same text exchange, pointed out that Breest added “lol”When she mentioned oral sex, she said that she would love to. “see what happens”When she was again alone with him.
“I don’t care too much,”Priya Chaudhry, defense attorney, read the verdict for jury. “I just hope I don’t now have [professional] enemies.”
Breest’s lawsuit caused three other women to come forward with similar sex assault allegations against the filmmaker. Breest is the sole plaintiff in this case. However, they will provide testimony about encounters between 1996-2015 to support their claims.
Haggis’ lawyer said she will show how Scientology helped cook up Breest’s lawsuit to smear him for leaving the church and becoming one of its most high-profile critics.
This theory was ridiculed by the prosecution.
“Scientology has nothing to do with this case,” Salzman said – a position the Church of Scientology has strongly maintained.
The church loomed in another celebrity rape trial this week – although from a very different angle – as prominent Scientologist Danny Masterson faces criminal sex assault charges in a Los Angeles court. Though his lawyers won a hard-fought agreement from the judge that Scientology talk should be severely limited, Tuesday’s opening arguments focused almost squarely on the influence the church had on Masterson’s accusers, also Scientologists.
But in New York, the accusers’ attorney kept the spotlight on Haggis’ alleged repeat behavior.
“Mr. Haggis used his storytelling skills and his fame to prey on, to manipulate and to attack vulnerable young women in the film industry,” Salzman said. “He doesn’t stop when women say no.”
Haggis was accused of raping an American national at a film festival in June. Haggis was taken into custody and kept in his hotel room for over two weeks. An Italian judge then ruled that there was not enough evidence to keep him there. Details in that case will not go in the Breest trial.