Paul Haggis trial: Publicist accuses filmmaker of rape, ‘I was like a trapped animal’ – National

He was a well-known moviemaker. She was a publicist working a movie premiere the place he was a VIP visitor. He’d provided her a carry residence after which invited her to his condo for a drink.

In his condo, screenwriter-director Paul Haggis had abruptly tried to kiss her, backed her into his fridge, and had a query for her, accuser Haleigh Breest advised a jury Thursday.

“Are you scared of me?” he requested, in accordance with her testimony.

And so started, Breest stated, a sexual assault that ended with the Oscar winner raping her. She’s suing him in a civil case that’s now on trial.

Haggis maintains the 2013 encounter was consensual, and his lawyer has argued that Breest referred to as it rape as a result of she’s out for cash.

In a gradual, unsparing tone, Breest recounted what she stated was a terrifying, painful assault that left her shocked and “really struggling to comprehend what had happened.”

“I couldn’t understand how somebody who seemed like a nice guy would do that,” she stated.

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As she spoke with out him, Haggis, 69, watched largely expressionlessly, generally rubbing his bearded chin or taking notes. He might select to testify later within the trial.

Breest, now 36, stated she first met the Haggis — recognized for writing Oscar greatest photos winners Crash, which he additionally directed, and Million Dollar Baby — in 2012 at a premiere afterparty. She had a aspect job with a company that coordinates such occasions.

Breest and Haggis went on to alternate occasional skilled emails and get together chitchat, she stated, over the months earlier than their paths crossed once more at one other premiere get together on Jan. 31, 2013.

After they interacted a bit through the occasion, a tipsy — however not stumbling drunk — Breest accepted the filmmaker’s supply of a journey, after which his invitation for a drink, she advised jurors. She stated she tried to shift the setting to someplace public, however he pushed for his condo in Manhattan’s SoHo neighbourhood, and she or he didn’t wish to offend certainly one of her employer’s red-carpet friends.

“But just so you know,” she testified that she advised him en route, “I’m not sleeping in SoHo tonight.”

Yet Haggis’ advances started as quickly as she put her luggage down in his loft’s open kitchen, Breest stated.

“You’ve been flirting with me for months,” he quickly stated, in accordance with her.

“I don’t even know you,” she stated she replied.

Breest stated she was capable of dodge and deflect his makes an attempt to kiss her for a bit, and thought she’d succeeded in politely defusing the state of affairs when he began a pleasant tour of the condo. But as they checked out a visitor bed room, Haggis “became aggressive very quickly,” pushed her onto the mattress and pulled off her tights and garments as she tried to maintain them on and advised him to cease, she stated.

Then, she stated, he pressured her to carry out oral intercourse and needed intercourse. She stated she requested to take a bathe as a delicate strategy to get out of the room, however he adopted her there.

Then, as she left the toilet to attempt to get her garments, she stated, he put his palms on her shoulders from behind, steered her again to the visitor bed room and made an extra collection of undesirable sexual strikes that culminated in rape.

“I was like a trapped animal. There was nothing for me to do,” she stated.

Breest stated she handed out quickly afterward, awoke alone on the mattress the subsequent morning and left with out seeing Haggis once more.

The Associated Press typically doesn’t determine individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted until they arrive ahead publicly, as Breest has carried out.

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