Filmmaker Paul Haggis took the stand in New York for his rape lawsuit on Wednesday.
During his testimony, the “Million Dollar Baby” filmmaker testified that he believed he had a consensual sexual encounter with a woman and acted on what he believed was a mutual attraction.
Publicist Haleigh Breest alleges that Haggis forced her to perform oral sex and then raped her in 2013 as she repeatedly told him no.
Haggis took the stand, where he testified that Breest “never gave me any indication it was anything other than consensual” until he heard from her legal team in 2017.
Publicist Haleigh Breest arrives at court in New York on Wednesday. Breest alleges that filmmaker Paul Haggis forced her to perform oral sex and then raped her in 2013 as she repeatedly told him no.
(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
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“For five years, I’ve been unable to clear my name, and now I will,” Haggis told jurors.
Earlier, Breest gave her own testimony where she detailed the alleged rape.
“I said, ‘Stop! Stop! Stop!'” she testified. Breest is seeking unspecified damages; there are no criminal charges in the civil case.
Screenwriter and film director Paul Haggis arrives at court for a sexual assault civil lawsuit on Wednesday.
(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Haggis’ testimony, due to continue Thursday, has not yet addressed all of Breest’s accusations, including the moment she said Haggis shoved her onto a bed, pulled off her clothes and forced oral sex. Additionally, Haggis has not detailed his account of the point at which she alleges he raped her.
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However, earlier that evening, when Breest maintains Haggis startled her with kisses that she did not return and quickly backed out of, Haggis said she initially deflected him with an ambiguous “ooh!” Then, when he made another pass, “she was kissing me back,” he testified.
Haggis agreed with some parts of his accuser’s account of how she ended up alone with him in his downtown Manhattan loft. He offered her a ride home from a movie premiere and invited her for a drink at his apartment. She responded by suggesting a bar instead. When he said he preferred the apartment, she accepted but told him she was not spending the night.
Paul Haggis took the stand on Wednesday and maintained the sexual encounter in 2013 was consensual.
(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
However, when Breest said she made clear that she was not interested in a physical liaison, Haggis said he got a different signal.
Once they got to his home, “she was having a really good time, it seemed to me,” and they were both “flirtatious,” smiling and “very engaged” as they chatted over glasses of wine, he said.
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Haggis testified that he believed Breest — who was a publicist and attended several events with the moviemaker – flirted with him at these events and via email.
He said he found her “adorable.”
When she greeted him with a hug on the night in question, he took it as “an escalation in our relationship,” he said.
Breest, 36, has said she just showed professional friendliness to Haggis, 69, who is older than her father.
Haggis testified on Wednesday that he is trying to “clear” his name after five years of accusations.
(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Haggis has not yet told the jury his version of interactions with four other women, who testified that he sexually assaulted them on separate occasions between 1996 and 2015. One said he raped her.
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Through his testimony, Haggis maintains the encounter with Breest was consensual.
His lawyers have suggested that the Church of Scientology engineered false accusations of sexual misdeeds to discredit him. Haggis left the church in 2009 and later publicly denounced it.
The church said in a statement as the trial opened that it “has nothing to do with the claims against Haggis, nor does it have any relation to the attorneys behind the case.” Breest’s attorneys say the same.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
