UNITED STATES. Director Paul Haggis will have to pay 7.5 million to his victim.

Canadian Academy Award-winning director Paul Haggis was tried Thursday by a New York civil court responsible for rape of an advertising agent in 2013. He will have to pay him $ 7.5 million.

The director of “Crash” (“Collision”) and screenwriter of “Million Dollar Baby” and “Casino Royale”, 69, was tried by a civil jury of the New York Supreme Court, following a process of accountability. on October 19.

He has been accused since December 2017 by an advertising agent who works in the cinema of raping her in January 2013, when she was 26 years old. In the process, in the midst of a wave of free speech #MeToo about sexual violence and sexism against women, the director was targeted by allegations of sexual assault by three other women.

But he appeared in New York only for the facts reported by the advertising agent that the director has always denied. He is not prosecuted for these rape charges. More recently, last June, Paul Haggis was arrested in southern Italy, again on charges of sexual violence against a young woman, facts that he has again denied.

Thesis related to Scientology rejected

During the civil trial, the director’s attorneys suggested Wednesday before the New York People’s Court jury that the victim’s complaint was led by the Church of Scientology, with whom Paul Haggis broke up and criticized. A thesis swept away by the actor’s lawyers.

In his complaint, he said that on the evening of January 31, 2013, after a film screening in Manhattan, the director had insisted that he come for a drink at his home when he said he preferred to go out to a bar. Once in her apartment, Paul Haggis had made several advances to her before forcing her into oral sex and then raping her again.

“Grateful”

“I am grateful that I had the opportunity to go to court to seek justice and establish accountability, and that the jury decided to follow the facts and believe me,” the complainant said in a statement.

Known for being one of the creators of the “Walker Texas Ranger” series, Paul Haggis received the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in 2006 for “Crash” (“Collision”). He was also the writer of Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, Memoirs of Our Fathers and Iwo Jima’s Letters, as well as episodes of the James Bond saga, “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace”.

ATS