Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis denies raping publicist, jurors told

Film director Paul Haggis denies raping a publicist (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

Jurors have begun considering a lawsuit that pits Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis against a publicist who alleges that he raped her.

Opening statements in the civil case against Mr Haggis began on Wednesday in a New York state court.

Publicist Haleigh Breest claims that the Crash and Million Dollar Baby screenwriter raped her after she reluctantly agreed to a drink in his apartment after a 2013 movie premiere. Mr Haggis maintains that the encounter was consensual.

Ms Breest never went to police, but soon after the encounter, she gave friends an account of what happened, sending text messages that both her lawyers and Mr Haggis’ attorneys say bolster their case.

“He was so rough and aggressive. Never, ever again … And I kept saying no,” read one text that her lawyer Zoe Salzman highlighted in her opening statement.

Publicist Haleigh Breest has said she was sexually assaulted (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

She said the encounter shattered Ms Breest emotionally, but that she did not go public until after the allegations against Harvey Weinstein burst into view in 2017 and Mr Haggis condemned him.

“The hypocrisy of it made her blood boil,” Ms Salzman said.

Mr Haggis’s attorney Priya Chaudhry pointed jurors to other parts of the same text exchange, saying that Ms Breest added “lol” — for “laughing out loud” — when she mentioned performing oral sex, and that she said she wanted to be alone with Mr Haggis again to “see what happens”.

“I don’t care too much. I just hope I don’t now have enemies” professionally, she wrote, according to Ms Chaudhry. She argued that Ms Breest falsely accused the filmmaker of rape to get a payout.

“Paul Haggis is relieved that he finally gets his day in court,” Ms Chaudhry said.

Only Mr Breest is suing Mr Haggis, but jurors will also hear from four other women who told her lawyers that Mr Haggis sexually assaulted them, or attempted to do so, in separate encounters between 1996 and 2015.

The jury will not hear, however, that Italian authorities this summer investigated a sexual assault allegation against him, which he denied.

“Mr Haggis used his storytelling skills and his fame to prey on, to manipulate and to attack vulnerable young women in the film industry,” Ms Salzman told jurors. “He doesn’t stop when women say no.”

Mr Haggis’ attorney argued there is another explanation for the allegations.

Promising “circumstantial evidence” she suggested that Scientologists beefed up Ms Breest’s lawsuit to discredit him after he split with the church and became a prominent detractor.

The church denies any involvement, and Ms Breest’s lawyers have called the notion a baseless conspiracy theory that lacks proof of any connection between the religion and Mr Haggis’ accusers.

“Scientology has nothing to do with this case,” Ms Salzman told jurors. The church has said the same.

Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals focused on spiritual betterment. Science fiction and fantasy author L Ron Hubbard’s 1950 book Dianetics: The Modern Science Of Mental Health is a foundational text.

The religion has gained a following among such celebrities as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.

But some high-profile members have broken with it, including Mr Haggis, singer Lisa Marie Presley and actor Leah Remini.

Mr Haggis says he was Scientologist for three decades before leaving the church in 2009. He slammed it as “a cult” in a 2011 New Yorker article that later informed a book and an HBO documentary, and he foreshadowed that retribution would come in the form of “a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church”.

The church has repeatedly said that Mr Haggis lied about its practices to grab the spotlight for himself and his career.