CHARGES DROPPED?

Prosecutors Want Paul Haggis’ Sex Assault Case Dismissed: Report

A judge will now decide if the case against the two-time Oscar winner should be tossed.

Prosecutors in Italy have requested that a sexual assault case against Paul Haggis be dismissed, according to a report. The Canadian writer-director was arrested in the southern province of Brindisi in June 2022 over allegations that he abused a British woman for three days. The Public Prosecutor’s Office in the city of Brindisi has now told local media that an investigation was unable to establish that their relationship had been non-consensual, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with a judge left to decide whether to dismiss the case. The woman who made the allegations—which Haggis denies—could still oppose the dismissal. Haggis, who won back-to-back Academy Awards for the 2004 films Million Dollar Baby and Crash, was separately sued in 2017 by publicist Haleigh Breest, who alleged that he raped her in 2013. A civil jury found him liable for rape in November 2022, with Haggis being ordered to pay $10 million to Breest.