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The civil trial in New York against Oscar-winning Canadian director Paul Haggis, accused by an advertising agent of rape in 2013, opened on Wednesday. The defendant denies the facts.
The director of “Crash” (“Collision”) and screenwriter of “Million Dollar Baby” and “Casino Royale”, 69, arrived in court in the morning, an AFP photographer noted.
After the wave of free speech #MeToo about sexual violence and sexism against women, the director was charged with sexual assault by three women. But he appears only in New York for the facts reported by the advertising agent.
More recently, last June, Haggis was arrested in southern Italy, again on suspicion of sexually assaulting a young woman, which he again denied.
“Walker Texas Ranger”
According to several American media outlets, the director’s attorneys suggested on Wednesday to the New York People’s Court jury that the complaint was led by the Church of Scientology, with whom Paul Haggis had broken up and has since criticized. The thesis was blown away by the plaintiff’s lawyers.
In his complaint, the latter stated 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 house, 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.
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 screenwriter of Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby”, “Memoirs of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima”, as well as episodes of the James Bond saga, “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace”. .
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