By
Associated Press
A jury ordered Oscar-winning film director Paul Haggis on Thursday to pay at least $7.5 million to a woman who accused him of rape, after one of the most notorious legal demands of the
#MeToo
movement , which has
put several powerful men in Hollywood under scrutiny.
The jury also ordered Haggis to pay an undetermined amount of additional punitive damages.
The civil trial pitted Haggis, known for writing the Oscar-winning films
Million Dollar Baby
and
Crash
, against
Haleigh Breest, a publicist
who met him while working on theatrical releases in the early 2010s. After an after party At a screening in January 2013, he offered her a ride home and invited her to his apartment in New York for a drink.
Breest, 36, said Haggis made unwelcome advances there and eventually
forced her to perform oral sex on him and raped
her despite her pleas for him to stop.
Haggis, 69, said the publicist had flirted with him and, although she seemed to show "conflict" at times, kissed him and performed oral sex on him consensually.
He said that he didn't remember if they had had sex.
Screenwriter and film director Paul Haggis arrives in court for a sexual assault civil lawsuit, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, in New York.
AP
Jurors sided with Breest, who said he suffered psychological and professional consequences from his encounter with Haggis.
The publicist filed the lawsuit in late 2017.
“I thought he would take me home.
I agreed to have a drink.
What happened should never have happened.
And it was not my responsibility, but his and his actions, ”he told the jurors.
The verdict came weeks after another civil jury ruled that
Kevin Spacey
did not sexually assault fellow actor
Anthony Rapp
in 1986, when he was a teenager.
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Meanwhile,
That 70's Show actor
Danny Masterson
and former movie mogul
Harvey Weinstein
are on separate trial on rape charges in Los Angeles.
Both deny the allegations, and Weinstein is appealing a conviction in New York.
[Former University of California Gynecologist Convicted of Multiple Sexual Abuse Charges]
Breest claimed that she decided to sue Haggis because Haggis publicly condemned Weinstein, and that angered her.
“This man raped me, and he presents himself as a defender of women to the world,” she said.
Four other women have also said they suffered unwanted advances and, in one case, rape by Haggis in encounters dating back to 1996. None of the four women have taken legal action against the filmmaker.