Via Related Press
NEW YORK: He used to be a well-known moviemaker. She used to be a publicist operating a movie premiere the place he used to be a VIP visitor. He’d introduced her a boost house after which invited her to his condominium for a drink.
As soon as there screenwriter-director Paul Haggis swiftly attempted to kiss her, subsidized her into his fridge, and had a query for her, accuser Haleigh Breest advised a jury Thursday.
“Are you terrified of me?” he requested, in line with her testimony.
And so started, Breest mentioned, a sexual attack that ended with the Oscar winner raping her. She’s suing him in a civil case that is now on trial.
Haggis maintains the 2013 stumble upon used to be consensual, and his legal professional has argued that Breest referred to as it rape as a result of she’s out for cash. She’s in search of unspecified damages.
In a gentle, unsparing tone, Breest recounted what she mentioned used to be a terrifying, painful assault that left her surprised and “truly suffering to appreciate what had came about.”
“I couldn’t know how any individual who appeared like a pleasant man would do this,” she mentioned.
As she spoke with out having a look at him, Haggis, 69, watched in large part expressionlessly, infrequently rubbing his bearded chin or taking notes.
The Related Press usually doesn’t determine individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted except they arrive ahead publicly, as Breest has accomplished.
Breest, now 36, mentioned she first met the “Crash” and “Million Greenback Child” screenwriter in 2012 at a premiere afterparty the place she used to be operating.
Breest and Haggis exchanged occasional skilled emails and birthday party chitchat, she mentioned, over the months prior to their paths crossed once more at any other premiere birthday party she labored on Jan. 31, 2013.
A tipsy — however no longer stumbling inebriated — Breest approved the filmmaker’s be offering of a experience, after which his invitation for a drink, she advised jurors. She mentioned she recommended somewhere public as an alternative, however he driven for his condominium in New york’s SoHo neighbourhood, and he or she did not wish to offend considered one of her employer’s red-carpet visitors.
“However in order that you recognize,” she testified that she advised him, “I am not snoozing in SoHo this night.”
But Haggis’ advances started once she put her luggage down in his loft’s open kitchen, Breest mentioned.
“You have got been flirting with me for months,” he quickly mentioned, in line with her.
“I do not even know you,” she mentioned she responded.
Breest mentioned she dodged him and concept she’d in a well mannered way defused the placement when he began appearing her the condominium. But if they reached a visitor bed room, Haggis “turned into competitive in no time,” driven her onto the mattress and pulled off her tights and garments as she attempted to stay them on and advised him to prevent, she mentioned.
Then, she mentioned, he compelled her to accomplish oral intercourse and sought after sex. She mentioned she requested to take a bath as a refined option to get out of the room, however he adopted her there, then advised 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 used to be not anything for me to do,” she mentioned.
Breest mentioned she handed out quickly in a while, aroused from sleep by myself at the mattress the following morning and left with out seeing Haggis once more.
That day and within the resulting months, Breest mentioned, she advised a half-dozen pals that she were sexually assaulted, naming Haggis to a few. She mentioned she knowledgeable her boss the following yr that Haggis had accomplished one thing unhealthy to her.
Breest did not inform police. She testified that she used to be scared and interested in how her allegation can be treated.
Nor did she confront Haggis when he emailed her the day after the stumble upon to invite about pictures from the premiere. Nor at next screenings or in emails, a few of which she initiated, about social occasions and film issues.
“I didn’t need my paintings revel in to be awkward,” she testified, so “I pretended like the whole thing used to be standard. And it wasn’t.”
In the back of the scenes, Breest anguished over what had came about and what to do, in line with textual content and different digital messages proven in courtroom.
The communications, despatched to pals, veer from frank descriptions of compelled intercourse — “and I stored announcing no” — to moments when she appeared to downplay it (“it type of is” rape).
From time to time she mentioned she sought after to steer clear of Haggis, at others she mused about seeing him once more to check out to regain some equanimity and “no longer be the sufferer.” The messages are salted with lighthearted texting slang — “lol,” “omg,” “haha” — that Breest says had been makes an attempt to make use of humour to defang a tricky matter.
Haggis hasn’t testified so far, and his legal professionals have not but gotten their probability to query Breest. In a gap observation, defence lawyer Priya Chaudhry pointed to one of the vital accuser’s messages — equivalent to a remark that she wishes “to get one thing out of this” — to query her credibility.
Breest mentioned her remarks simply mirror her horror at being victimized, her need to grasp again a way of keep an eye on in her lifestyles, and her confusion at how any person she concept neatly of may just violently activate her.
Now, she mentioned, she understands that night time.
“I believed I used to be getting a experience house. I agreed to have a drink. What came about by no means will have to have came about,” she advised the jury. “And it had not anything to do with me, and the whole thing to do with him and his movements.”
NEW YORK: He used to be a well-known moviemaker. She used to be a publicist operating a movie premiere the place he used to be a VIP visitor. He’d introduced her a boost house after which invited her to his condominium for a drink.
As soon as there screenwriter-director Paul Haggis swiftly attempted to kiss her, subsidized her into his fridge, and had a query for her, accuser Haleigh Breest advised a jury Thursday.
“Are you terrified of me?” he requested, in line with her testimony.
And so started, Breest mentioned, a sexual attack that ended with the Oscar winner raping her. She’s suing him in a civil case that is now on trial.
Haggis maintains the 2013 stumble upon used to be consensual, and his legal professional has argued that Breest referred to as it rape as a result of she’s out for cash. She’s in search of unspecified damages.
In a gentle, unsparing tone, Breest recounted what she mentioned used to be a terrifying, painful assault that left her surprised and “truly suffering to appreciate what had came about.”
“I couldn’t know how any individual who appeared like a pleasant man would do this,” she mentioned.
As she spoke with out having a look at him, Haggis, 69, watched in large part expressionlessly, infrequently rubbing his bearded chin or taking notes.
The Related Press usually doesn’t determine individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted except they arrive ahead publicly, as Breest has accomplished.
Breest, now 36, mentioned she first met the “Crash” and “Million Greenback Child” screenwriter in 2012 at a premiere afterparty the place she used to be operating.
Breest and Haggis exchanged occasional skilled emails and birthday party chitchat, she mentioned, over the months prior to their paths crossed once more at any other premiere birthday party she labored on Jan. 31, 2013.
A tipsy — however no longer stumbling inebriated — Breest approved the filmmaker’s be offering of a experience, after which his invitation for a drink, she advised jurors. She mentioned she recommended somewhere public as an alternative, however he driven for his condominium in New york’s SoHo neighbourhood, and he or she did not wish to offend considered one of her employer’s red-carpet visitors.
“However in order that you recognize,” she testified that she advised him, “I am not snoozing in SoHo this night.”
But Haggis’ advances started once she put her luggage down in his loft’s open kitchen, Breest mentioned.
“You have got been flirting with me for months,” he quickly mentioned, in line with her.
“I do not even know you,” she mentioned she responded.
Breest mentioned she dodged him and concept she’d in a well mannered way defused the placement when he began appearing her the condominium. But if they reached a visitor bed room, Haggis “turned into competitive in no time,” driven her onto the mattress and pulled off her tights and garments as she attempted to stay them on and advised him to prevent, she mentioned.
Then, she mentioned, he compelled her to accomplish oral intercourse and sought after sex. She mentioned she requested to take a bath as a refined option to get out of the room, however he adopted her there, then advised 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 used to be not anything for me to do,” she mentioned.
Breest mentioned she handed out quickly in a while, aroused from sleep by myself at the mattress the following morning and left with out seeing Haggis once more.
That day and within the resulting months, Breest mentioned, she advised a half-dozen pals that she were sexually assaulted, naming Haggis to a few. She mentioned she knowledgeable her boss the following yr that Haggis had accomplished one thing unhealthy to her.
Breest did not inform police. She testified that she used to be scared and interested in how her allegation can be treated.
Nor did she confront Haggis when he emailed her the day after the stumble upon to invite about pictures from the premiere. Nor at next screenings or in emails, a few of which she initiated, about social occasions and film issues.
“I didn’t need my paintings revel in to be awkward,” she testified, so “I pretended like the whole thing used to be standard. And it wasn’t.”
In the back of the scenes, Breest anguished over what had came about and what to do, in line with textual content and different digital messages proven in courtroom.
The communications, despatched to pals, veer from frank descriptions of compelled intercourse — “and I stored announcing no” — to moments when she appeared to downplay it (“it type of is” rape).
From time to time she mentioned she sought after to steer clear of Haggis, at others she mused about seeing him once more to check out to regain some equanimity and “no longer be the sufferer.” The messages are salted with lighthearted texting slang — “lol,” “omg,” “haha” — that Breest says had been makes an attempt to make use of humour to defang a tricky matter.
Haggis hasn’t testified so far, and his legal professionals have not but gotten their probability to query Breest. In a gap observation, defence lawyer Priya Chaudhry pointed to one of the vital accuser’s messages — equivalent to a remark that she wishes “to get one thing out of this” — to query her credibility.
Breest mentioned her remarks simply mirror her horror at being victimized, her need to grasp again a way of keep an eye on in her lifestyles, and her confusion at how any person she concept neatly of may just violently activate her.
Now, she mentioned, she understands that night time.
“I believed I used to be getting a experience house. I agreed to have a drink. What came about by no means will have to have came about,” she advised the jury. “And it had not anything to do with me, and the whole thing to do with him and his movements.”