Sebastian Reuter
Crash director Paul Haggis has had a motion to appeal his liability in a civil rape case denied by a judge who has ruled “there is no basis to vacate the verdict in the interest of justice.” Publicist Haleigh Breest, who claimed that Haggis raped her after a film premiere in 2013, was awarded $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages by a jury in November. However, lawyers for Oscar-winner Haggis filed a 114-page motion in December, alleging that a “constellation of errors” during his court case deprived him of a fair trial. Judge Sabrina Kraus, who presided over the initial trial, disagreed with that assessment. “Defendant has not shown that he was deprived of substantial justice or that any alleged misconduct by counsel unduly affected the verdict,” she wrote in a nine-page decision obtained by The Daily Beast. “At the end of the day, the jury credited (Breest’s) testimony, which described a forced and unwanted sexual assault and rape, and found (Haggis’) version of a kittenish and flirtatious Betty Boop character, who bragged about her skills in fellatio, lacking in credibility.” Haggis’ lawyer Priya Chaudhry told The Daily Beast they would appeal. “Having watched the trial court botch the law and rules of evidence, we are not surprised that the judge erred again in denying this motion. Mr. Haggis is confident that the appellate court judges will quickly see the mountain of legal errors and reverse this injustice.”