A case of rape against the winner of the Oscars “Crash”, Paul Haggis, was rejected Wednesday in Italy. On Thursday, his American lawyer suggested that Italian allegations were to harm his chances in a civilian New York case which cost him $ 10 million.
A judge of the Italian city of Brindisi judged that no sexual act had taken place without consent, said lawyers in Haggis Reuters Wednesday. The woman had accused the writer-director of having raped her several times during two days in 2022 when they were both in town to Allore Fest, an entertainment event.
“For Mr. Haggis, it was the end of a nightmare that unfairly broke the career of a film genius and winner of the Oscars in 2006,” said lawyers Michele Laforgia and Daniele Romeo in a press release.
After the criminal allegations, Haggis was arrested by the police in June, then held under house arrest At his hotel until he was released on July 4, 2022. He argued that he was innocent accusations.
“Being accused of sexual violence, something I did not do, was devastating and something that I hope that no innocent person will never know,” said Haggis A translated interview with an Italian mediator The Republic In July 2022. An Englishman who was 30 at the time said he had forced her to have sex with him for two days in a bed and fetter in Puglia, then dropped her off at a neighboring airport when she was in a state of confusion.
“As I said to the judge, my first error was to allow someone I was barely known to come and visit me. It was stupid,” said Haggis in the interview of July 12, 2022. “The second error was the last morning after an incident that I found personally particularly unpleasant, I decided to end this situation; I took this person to the airport. Can't understand that they have resulted in false prejudicial accusations against me. “
The writer “Million Dollar Baby” said in the interview that he had lost at least two writing jobs because of his arrest. On Thursday, the lawyer who represented him in the New York civil affair in October 2022 said that the Italian affair had perhaps aimed to sabotage his client before the start of this trial.
“It was always obvious that Paul was completely innocent (in the Italian case) – and that this woman lied,” said lawyer Priya Chaudhry in a statement in Times. “The moment of lie and the inevitability that it would be exposed, strongly suggests that his false accusation was planned to sabotage the other case of Paul on the eve of the trial – deliberately designed to inflict a maximum of damage and influence and public opinion.
“Everyone should now question the credibility of a verdict pronounced in the shadow of a false criminal allegation – a strategically timed to generate world titles, ignite public opinion and irreparably impregnate the course of justice.”
Haggis was found responsible in the New York Affair And ordered to pay $ 10 million in Haleigh Brest, a former publicist who worked the red carpets during the first films in the early 2010s. Breest accepted a return home in Haggis after a first in January 2013 and agreed to go to his apartment to have a drink instead of his suggestion that they go to a bar. She accused her of playing her oral sex, then raping her. Haggis maintains that the meeting was consensual. He was not charged criminally.
Chaudhry also told Times in a statement in 2022 that a fair trial for Haggis was “impossible” once the judge admitted declarations of four additional women – three of whom did not appear before the court – who did not go to the police with their complaints.
“I cannot live with lies like this. I will die by clarifying my name,” said Haggis, leaving the court after the verdict, reported the Associated Press at the time.
A civil prosecution filed by Haggis before Breest made her complaint alleged that she and her lawyer had tried to extort $ 9 million in “silence of silence” on what the director said to be a false complaint for rape. A judge of the Court of Appeal rejected the Haggis affair in July 2018, saying that he had no specific allegation that Breest threatened to make his request public if it was not paid. The director abandoned his call for decision in March 2019.
