Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis’ attempt to sue his alleged rape victim for ‘intentional infliction of emotional distress’ is thrown out by a New York judge

  • Paul Haggis, 65, has been accused of rape, sexual assault and misconduct by at least four women 
  • The Oscar-winning director filed a  counter-suit against one of his accusers - 32-year-old publicist Haleigh Breest
  • Breest filed a lawsuit in December 2017 alleging Haggis raped her in his New York City apartment after a movie premiere in 2013 
  • A New York judge threw out Haggis' suit against Breest for 'intentional infliction of emotional distress' Thursday 

Director Paul Haggis' attempt to sue his alleged rape victim for 'intentional infliction of emotional distress' was thrown out by a New York judge today.

The Academy-Award winning director had pre-emptively counter-sued publicist Haleigh Breest, 32, who filed a lawsuit in December 2017, alleging he raped her in his apartment after a movie premiere in 2013.

According to the suit, Breest had accepted his offer of a ride home. Instead, she said, he brought her to his apartment in SoHo and invited her inside for a drink. Fearing she would insult him if she declined the offer, Breest went into his apartment and had a glass of wine.

Quickly, Haggis became 'sexually aggressive,' she said in her lawsuit, and began kissing her.

She was 'petrified and felt paralyzed,' the suit said, when Haggis asked her, 'You're scared of me, aren't you?'

A New York judge threw out Paul Haggis' suit against his alleged rape victim for 'intentional infliction of emotional distress' Thursday

A New York judge threw out Paul Haggis' suit against his alleged rape victim for 'intentional infliction of emotional distress' Thursday

Haggis then forced her into a bedroom and onto a bed and tried to tear off her tights, she said. She called out 'no,' but he wouldn't stop, she said. He forced her to perform oral sex on him, he fondled her, asked if she liked anal sex, then raped her, according to the lawsuit.

When she woke up hours later, feeling sore, scared and humiliated, she saw Haggis sleeping in another bedroom, and left. Breest said she went to a clinic to be checked for sexually transmitted diseases, then told several friends and a psychologist.

At New York Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice Robert R. Reed considered several motions filed by each side. Neither Breest nor Haggis, who is best known for his movies 'Crash' and Million Dollar Baby, attended the court hearing.

Haggis' attorney, Christine Lepera, said that she did not agree to settlement discussions and that when Breest's lawyers asked for $9 million; 'It became clear it was extortion.'

She added: 'When you threaten litigation on a false rape allegation in this climate, it's outrageous. We all know rape is outrageous. This is equally outrageous.'

She claimed that Breest wanted $9million as 'hush money' to prevent her from filing and that she did not really want to go to court.

'In today's world there is an automatic assumption of guilt,' she said, adding that Haggis, 64, vigorously denies the 'salacious' allegations.

Lepera said Breest and her lawyers have 'litigated this case in the press' and filled their complaint with 'lurid details of violence and torture'.

But Justice Reed told Lepera that she had filed a similar complaint and had talked to the press. 'This all became public because you filed first,' Reed said.

Haggis is in fear of his life and risks losing everything, his attorney claimed. 'He has suffered incredible distress – family, medical – and lost business opportunities,' Lepera said.

Attorneys for Breest described the emotional distress lawsuit filed by Haggis as 'frivolous'.

'They want a special rule for men accused of sexual assault, a sort of anti-MeToo movement,' Ilann Maazel said.

Haleigh Breest, 32, filed a lawsuit in December 2017 alleging Haggis raped her in his New York City apartment after a movie premiere in 2013

Haleigh Breest, 32, filed a lawsuit in December 2017 alleging Haggis raped her in his New York City apartment after a movie premiere in 2013

He said that Haggis' lawyers called them to have a settlement discussion and asked for the terms. Subsequently, they stopped the settlement discussions and filed suit against Breest.

'Mr Haggis raped Ms Breest and then he sued her and they leaked the case to the press,' Maazel said.

Justice Reed granted a motion to dismiss Haggis' lawsuit, nothing that there was a clear distinction between telling the opposite side about a potential lawsuit and telling them that the information would be used publicly, in the media or on the internet.

'It is this court's view that it would serve as a chill on the ability of persons who believe another has committed sexual misconduct if they were unable to pursue pre-litigation discussions and settlement demands, even outrageous settlement demands,' Justice Reed told the court.

He added that lawsuits like the one filed by the director are 'certainly not to be encouraged'.

Reed said: 'There is a difference in going directly to the media and filing a complaint as is your right as a citizen. '

The judge also heard motions on Breest's lawsuit. Haggis' lawyers challenged the suit, claiming that it had no legal grounding. The judge ruled that Breest's case could proceed through the courts.

The director has also been accused of 'gender-motivated violence' and his attorneys tried to have this dismissed.

Breest's lawyer, Zoe Salzman, argued that the alleged rape was motivated by gender because Haggis had used 'explicitly violent and derogatory' language during the attack, including 'You're nice and tight', referring to her vagina and 'You've been flirting with me for months.'

The judge conceded that alleged sexist remarks did not necessarily reveal Haggis hated women but said he would allow the claim to proceed to allow a jury to decide.

Justice Reed also allowed an amended complaint to be filed by Breest's attorneys that will allow additional allegations by three further Jane Does who claim that Haggis also raped them – but he said that 'those all need to be explored in discovery' and backed up with evidence and whether the individuals are prepared to testify.

Haggis has been accused of rape, sexual assault and misconduct by at least four women

Haggis has been accused of rape, sexual assault and misconduct by at least four women

The 65-year-old filmmaker won Oscars for his films Million Dollar Baby and Crash
The 65-year-old filmmaker won Oscars for his films Million Dollar Baby and Crash

The 65-year-old filmmaker won Oscars for his films Million Dollar Baby and Crash 

Three additional women came forward in January with their own sexual misconduct accusations against Haggis, including another publicist who says he forced her to perform oral sex, then raped her. The accusers said the attacks took place between 1996 and 2015.

One of the women told the Associated Press that Haggis tried to sexually assault her. 'I need to be inside you,' she recalled him saying, before she managed to run away.

Another of the 'Jane Doe' accusers said Haggis held down her arms, forcibly kissed her on a street corner, then followed her into a taxi. She said she later escaped his clutches.

The women were early in their careers in the entertainment business when, they say, the Hollywood heavyweight lured them to private or semi-private places under the guise of discussing productions or a subject of a professional nature.

They all said Haggis first tried to kiss them. In two of the cases, they said, when they fought back, Haggis escalated his aggression.

The new rape accuser said she was a 28-year-old publicist working on a television show being produced by Haggis in 1996 when he called to ask to review photos from the show that night in her office.

'I thought it was odd, but I agreed. He was the ultimate boss. I didn't feel inclined to say no,' she said.

When Haggis arrived, she said, everyone else had left the office for the night and he insisted they speak in a back office. She said Haggis began kissing her as soon as they walked into the room.

'I just pulled away. He was just glaring at me and came at me again. I was really resisting. He said to me, ''Do you really want to continue working?'' the woman said. 'And then he really forced himself on me. I was just numb. I didn't know what to do.'

She said he made her perform oral sex, then pushed her to the floor and raped her. When she returned to work the next day, she was so scared of Haggis that she asked a friend to come to work with her, she said.

Her account was corroborated by another friend, who said that in the weeks after the attack the woman lost weight and appeared to be depressed. When she asked what happened, the woman said Haggis had raped her a few weeks earlier, the friend said.

The friend spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because she still works in the entertainment industry and feared possible retaliation. The accuser said she considered calling the police but feared that no one would believe her and worried that Haggis could end her career.

'The power, the anger, the financial resources, you feel like you are not really a match for that,' she said.

The woman said she felt inspired to come forward after seeing Haggis' photo and a news story about Breest's lawsuit, amid the growing #MeToo movement of women speaking out about sexual misconduct by powerful men in Hollywood, politics, the media and other industries.

Haggis has vehemently denied the claims and the next hearing is scheduled for October 25

Haggis has vehemently denied the claims and the next hearing is scheduled for October 25

The third accuser was in her 30s when she met with Haggis at his Los Angeles office in the late 2000s to pitch him a potential television show. When she arrived for the meeting, set for 9pm, there were other employees around, but all quickly left. She said he had a bottle of wine open on his desk, too, and that when she sat down on a couch in his office, Haggis told her he had an arrangement with his wife to have extramarital relationships.

Panicked, she said, she looked for her car keys and an escape route, as Haggis came around a table and tried to kiss her.

She said the thought to herself, 'How am I going to escape alive?'

'I felt like my life could have been over,' she said.

She ran to her car. Haggis followed her outside, but she managed to get in and drive off before calling her sister and several friends to tell them what happened, she said. A friend told the AP she remembered being told about the incident.

The new accuser who said Haggis forcibly kissed her, then followed her into her taxi, said the encounter occurred in 2015 in Canada. She said she was in her late 20s at the time and knew Haggis from film events.

She said that when the taxi arrived at her apartment, Haggis threw money at the driver, chased her and kissed her again before she was able to get into her residence and shut the door. She said Haggis waved his hands at her once she was inside and sent her harassing text messages for the next 24 hours, until she blocked him.

Haggis wrote the screenplay for the James Bond installment Casino Royale 

Haggis wrote the screenplay for the James Bond installment Casino Royale 

Haggis's attorneys said that the claims made by the Jane Does were 'extremely prejudicial' to their client.

The amended complaint must be filed to the court in 15 days and then Haggis has 30 days to respond.

'We are pleased with the ruling,' Salzman told DailyMail.com outside the courtroom.

Lepera told DailyMail.com: 'I think we want to wait for the transcript. I think that we have a very clear decision with respect to these Jane doe allegations that they have tried to keep in the case that if they don't disclose pretty much immediately in discovery those will be stricken and the court is questioning whether or not they have sufficiently pled the gender violence claim.

'With respect to the intentional infliction of emotional distress claim, the court didn't find that to be viable but at the end of the day, there's malicious prosecution.'

The next hearing has been scheduled for October 25.

After years of working in television, Haggis broke out in the mid-2000s when he became the first screenwriter to write back-to-back best picture winners, Million Dollar Baby and Crash, which he also directed.

He also gained attention for his defection from Scientology in 2009, and public criticism of the religion in a 2011 New Yorker article, a book and an HBO documentary. All the women interviewed denied any connection to Scientology.

Haggis also is known for his involvement with charities, including the Haiti-focused Artists for Peace and Justice, and his condemnation of Harvey Weinstein.

In an interview with The Guardian in October, Haggis said that while he didn't think sexual harassment and abuse were endemic in Hollywood, it was a 'fairly sexist' town. He also spoke further about Weinstein.

'A lot of people are compromised by Harvey's alleged actions,' said Haggis. 'Although everyone thinks it is vile behavior, you have got to focus on those who may have colluded and protected him. For me, they are as guilty as he is and in some cases more so, if I can say that. I mean, he was a predator and a predator is a predator. But what about those who would rather look the other way?'

 

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