Haggis faces three more claims
OSCAR-WINNING filmmaker Paul Haggis has been accused of sexual misconduct by three more women, following a civil suit filed in December by Manhattan publicist Haleigh Breest alleging he raped her.
The AP spoke with the unnamed accusers, one of whom accuses Haggis of rape and two others who allege he forcibly tried to kiss them. Haggis, who won two Oscars for “Crash” in 2006, denies the claims and suspects the Church of Scientology, which he has strongly criticized, is behind them.
Jane Doe 1, a publicist who worked on a TV show with Haggis, claims that in 1996 he attacked her in her office and forcibly tried to kiss her and threatened her career. She alleges he forced her to give him oral sex, and then raped her. Jane Doe 2, a woman pitching a TV show to him, alleges that in 2008, during a meeting, Haggis told her, “I need to be inside you,” and tried to kiss her. She managed to escape. Jane Doe 3, a woman he met at a film festival in 2015, says he invited her to his hotel to discuss screenwriting, grabbed her and forcibly tried to kiss her. She ran to a taxi, but he jumped in and began “restraining her arms.” She hit him and ran away.
Haggis sued Breest for extortion. She filed a countersuit claiming he raped her in his Soho apartment five years ago. Now Breest has filed an amended complaint alleging the further incidents illustrate that “Mr. Haggis is a serial preda- tor, who has repeatedly hurt women and who is sexually excited by women’s fear and pain.”
Haggis’ lawyer, Christine Lepera, said, “Mr. Haggis denies these anonymous claims in whole. In a society where one of a person’s fundamental rights is the ability to confront an accuser, that right has now been eviscerated when it comes to anyone being charged in the press with any sort of sexual misconduct . . . Mr. Haggis also questions whether Scientology has any role here, which he notes has been attacking him for years with false accusations.”
Breest’s attorney, Ilann M. Maazel, said, “This case has nothing whatsoever to do with Scientology. It has everything to do with Paul Haggis.”