MILAN — An Italian judge has dismissed a case against Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Paul Haggis for alleged rape, his lawyers said on May 7.
Haggis, 72, was detained in June 2022 and spent 14 days under house arrest after a British woman accused him of raping her over a two-day period in the southern Italian town of Ostuni in the Puglia region, where he was teaching at a film event.
The court judge in the nearby city of Brindisi ruled no sexual act took place without consent, Haggis’ lawyers said. Attorneys also shared that the filmmaker would hold a press conference on May 8 at their law firm’s offices in Bari, Puglia’s regional capital.
“For Mr. Haggis, it is the end of a nightmare that has unfairly shattered the career of a film genius and 2006 Oscar winner,” lawyers Michele Laforgia and Daniele Romeo said in a statement.
The lawyer of the woman who filed the complaint against the screenwriter was not immediately available for comment.
Haggis co-wrote and directed “Crash” a 2004 crime drama for which he won two Oscars, and also wrote “Million Dollar Baby,” a sports drama directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, which was released the same year.
In November 2022, a New York jury ordered Haggis to pay $10 million in damages for raping publicist Haleigh Breest in his Manhattan apartment nine years earlier. Haggis was ordered in March 2023 by New York Supreme Court Justice Sabrina Kraus to pay Breest an additional $2.8 million in attorneys fees and cost, bringing the total cost of damages to $12.8 million, according to New York Law Journal.
During the 2022 trial, Haggis described Breest as a “willing partner in their lone sexual interaction,” according to The Associated Press. Although the director maintained he had “no memory” of vaginally penetrating the woman, DNA evidence of seminal fluid found on Breest’s tights was shown to be a match.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential, 24/7 support to survivors and their loved ones in English and Spanish at: 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.
Leave a Reply