A rape case against “Crash” Oscar winner Paul Haggis was dismissed Wednesday in Italy. On Thursday, his U.S. attorney suggested that the Italian allegations were planned to hurt his chances in a New York civil case that cost him $10 million.
A judge in the Italian city of Brindisi ruled that no sex acts took place without consent, Haggis’ lawyers told Reuters on Wednesday. The woman had accused the writer-director of raping her repeatedly over the course of two days in 2022 while they were both in town for Allora Fest, an entertainment-industry event.
“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 to the wire service.
After the criminal allegations were made, Haggis was detained by police in June, then held under house arrest at his hotel until he was ordered released on July 4, 2022. He maintained he was innocent of the charges.
“Being accused of sexual violence, something that I did not do, was devastating and something I hope no innocent person will ever experience,” Haggis said in a translated interview with Italian news outlet La Repubblica in July 2022. An Englishwoman who was 30 at the time said he forced her to have sex with him over two days at a bed-and-breakfast in Puglia and then dropped her off at a nearby airport while she was in a state of confusion.
“As I told the judge, my first mistake was allowing someone who I hardly knew to come and visit me. It was foolish,” Haggis said in the July 12, 2022, interview. “The second mistake was on the last morning after an incident occurred that I personally found particularly unpleasant, I decided to end this situation; I took this person to the airport hours before her flight. I’m upset with myself for these errors in judgment but cannot comprehend that they resulted in false and damaging accusations against me.”
The “Million Dollar Baby” writer said in the interview that he lost at least two writing jobs because of his arrest. On Thursday, the attorney who represented him in the October 2022 New York civil case said the Italian case may have been aimed at sabotaging her client before that trial began.
“It was always obvious that Paul was completely innocent [in the Italian case] — and that this woman lied,” attorney Priya Chaudhry said in a statement to The Times. “The timing of the lie, and the inevitability that it would be exposed, strongly suggest her false accusation was planned to sabotage Paul’s other case on the eve of trial — deliberately engineered to inflict maximum damage and sway media and public opinion.
“Everyone should now question the credibility of a verdict delivered in the shadow of a false criminal allegation — one strategically timed to generate global headlines, inflame public opinion, and irreparably taint the course of justice.”
Haggis was found liable in the New York case and ordered to pay $10 million to Haleigh Breest, a former publicist who worked the red carpets at movie premieres in the early 2010s. Breest accepted a ride home from Haggis after a premiere in January 2013 and agreed to go to his apartment for a drink instead of her suggestion that they go to a bar. She accused him of making her perform oral sex and then raping her. Haggis maintains that the encounter was consensual. He was not criminally charged.
Chaudhry also told The Times in a statement in 2022 that a fair trial for Haggis was “impossible” once the judge admitted the statements of four additional women — three of whom didn’t appear in court — who didn’t go to the police with their complaints.
“I can’t live with lies like this. I will die clearing my name,” Haggis said as he left court after the verdict, the Associated Press reported at the time.
A civil suit filed by Haggis before Breest filed her claim alleged that she and her attorney had attempted to extort $9 million in “hush money” over what the director said was a false rape claim. An appeals court judge threw out Haggis’ case in July 2018, saying it had no specific allegation that Breest threatened to go public with her claim if she weren’t paid. The director abandoned his appeal of the decision in March 2019.