Paul Haggis trial: Publicist accuses filmmaker of rape, ‘I used to be like a trapped animal’ – Nationwide

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 dwelling 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 instructed a jury Thursday.

“Are you fearful of me?” he requested, in keeping 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 known 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 “actually struggling to understand what had occurred.”

“I couldn’t perceive how someone who appeared like a pleasant man would do this,” 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 could select to testify later within the trial.

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

Breest and Haggis went on to change occasional skilled emails and celebration chitchat, she stated, over the months earlier than their paths crossed once more at one other premiere celebration 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 trip, after which his invitation for a drink, she instructed 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 company.

“However simply so you realize,” she testified that she instructed him en route, “I’m not sleeping in SoHo tonight.”

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

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

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

Breest stated she was in a position to dodge and deflect his makes an attempt to kiss her for a bit, and thought she’d succeeded in politely defusing the scenario when he began a pleasant tour of the condo. However as they checked out a visitor bed room, Haggis “turned aggressive in a short time,” pushed her onto the mattress and pulled off her tights and garments as she tried to maintain them on and instructed 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 refined solution to get out of the room, however he adopted her there.

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

“I used to be 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 Related Press usually doesn’t establish individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted except they arrive ahead publicly, as Breest has finished.

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