A one-time publicist described for a Manhattan jury Thursday how she felt like “a trapped animal” when Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis allegedly raped her in his Soho condominium.
Haleigh Breest, who's suing Haggis over the alleged 2013 encounter,delivered graphic testimony in Manhattan Supreme Court docket, telling jurors she wished she had by no means stepped foot contained in the “Crash” filmmaker’s pad.
“I used to be like a trapped animal,” Breest stated, her eyes downcast and shaking her head. “There was nothing for me to do.”
Breest, then 26 and a movie publicist, claims Haggis supplied her a experience residence after attending a film premiere on the Higher West Facet as a celeb visitor.
However Haggis then pressured her to return to his condominium — and have become “agitated” when she urged him to go to a public bar as a substitute, Breest alleged.
“I didn’t wish to go to his condominium,” she advised the jury, saying Haggis continued to insist.
“He bought agitated. ‘Come over for a drink. I simply bought off a flight and I’m actually drained,” she stated. “I felt pressured to say sure.
Director Paul Haggis arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court docket.
Director Paul Haggis arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court docket together with his three daughters Thursday.
Director Paul Haggis outdoors Manhattan Supreme Court docket on Thursday.
Director Paul Haggis enters Manhattan Supreme Court docket for his civil trial.
“I stated, ‘Sure, however I’m not sleeping in Soho tonight,” she stated. “I needed to make it clear that I had no romantic curiosity in him.”
Requested if she was romantically concerned about Haggis, she stated, “No. He was older than my dad.”
Breest stuffed her civil lawsuit in opposition to the “Million Greenback Child” filmmaker in 2017 over the alleged Jan. 31, 2013 rape.
Following the premiere, she says Haggis supplied her a experience residence earlier than taking her to his Mercer Road pad over her objections, after which raping her.
“I want I had by no means gone over there,” she testified Thursday. “I believed I used to be getting a experience residence once I had left the occasion.”
Haggis, 69, has denied the allegations, and claims the encounter was consensual.
In courtroom Thursday, Breest described attending to the filmmaker’s condominium and discovering there was no doorman and nobody within the entryway. The 2 boarded an elevator to go to his penthouse, at the same time as her cellphone was useless.
“I adopted him into the kitchen and dwelling space,” she recalled. “The condominium is a loft so it’s all one house. I put my luggage down, he walked towards me together with his mouth open attempting to kiss me.”
“I used to be completely startled. Our lips made contact and I stated, ‘How about that wine?’
“I needed to remind him why I used to be there, for a drink and needed to let him know with out offending him,” Breest stated. “He was an vital visitor. He was a pal of my boss and I didn’t wish to make an enemy.”
After the pair drank some white wine Haggis once more got here onto her and “slobbered” as he pinned her in opposition to his fridge.
“You’re petrified of me, aren’t you?” Breest recalled an aggressive Haggis asking her as he had her in opposition to the fridge.
He requested her how previous she was, and when she answered that she was 26 he stated, “Don’t act like a f—ing 18-year-old,” Breest advised jurors.
Breest stated Haggis then bought her right into a visitor room, the place he pushed her onto the mattress and took off her tights as she struggled to cease him.
“He regarded just like the satan,” Breest stated of that wrestle. “He regarded completely totally different than I had seen him earlier than.”
She claimed that Haggis then compelled her to offer him oral intercourse.
Breest stated she was “terrified” and “paralyzed” and requested to take a bathe to get away from him. However she claimed he adopted her into the bathe after which pushed her again into the visitor bed room.
There, she says she was in a position to cease Haggis from performing oral intercourse on her by kicking her legs and squirming. He then allegedly advised her he appreciated anal intercourse and raped her, she stated.
When it was over, “I keep in mind curling up,” Breest stated. “I believed if I shut my eyes and faux I’m asleep perhaps this may cease and as soon as it stops I can go away.”
Breest then handed out and didn’t get up till the following morning bare, on prime of the covers with Haggis not round, she stated.
Later that day, she referred to as her shut pal Lyuda telling her what had occurred and the pair texted all through the day.
Breest stated she joked and tried to attenuate the scenario with Lyuda as a result of she didn’t know the way to course of what had occurred to her.
“I felt bodily nauseous from excited about the evening earlier than and the way I used to be gagging” as she was compelled to offer Haggis oral intercourse, Breest stated.
Breest defined to jurors that’s what she meant when she texted Lyuda: “And I gave a lot head I really feel like sick proper now.”
Throughout opening arguments Wednesday, Haggis’ lawyer repeated that textual content message to jurors a number of occasions claiming Breest was joking and jovial in regards to the encounter — alleged proof of the protection argument that the intercourse was consensual.
Breest was working freelance as a publicist on the 2013 occasion when she met Haggis, who was an influential visitor when the alleged assault occurred.
Throughout opening statements in Manhattan Supreme Court docket on Wednesday Breest’s lawyer, Zoe Salzman, advised the jury that the alleged assault left her shopper affected by post-traumatic stress dysfunction — so extreme she solely tried to have intercourse as soon as since.
Salzman stated Breest was unsuccessful as a result of she had “flashbacks” from the alleged encounter with Haggis.
She stated she delayed submitting her lawsuit as a result of she feared Haggis’ affect.
“He’s gifted, he’s highly effective and he’s additionally manipulative,” Salzman advised jurors Wednesday.
On Thursday, Breest advised jurors that it was solely after she noticed Haggis publicly condemn Harvey Weinstein on Twitter and within the press that she lastly determined to deliver her lawsuit.
“This man raped me and he’s presenting himself as a champion for girls,” Breest testified. “It made me extraordinarily upset and wish to take motion.”
Salzman stated Breest was fired from the freelance job of 9 years after she filed the swimsuit.
The first witness on the trial was a publicist for a Canadian TV present who testified in a video shot in 2019 that Haggis raped her whereas they labored on the TV present “Due South.”
She claimed that the “Million Greenback Child” screenwriter compelled her to carry out oral intercourse and raped her in 1996, and testified Haggis “was in assault mode.”
The lady, who requested to not be recognized, is one among 4 Haggis accusers, with Breest the one one to this point to take her allegations to courtroom.
Therapist Dr. Catherine Baker-Pitts, who stated she handled Breest from 2017 by means of 2019, additionally testified, saying the accuser “lived in a state of fixed stress.”
Haggis lawyer Priya Chaundhry countered that the director’s encounter with Breest was consensual, and stated she modified her story many occasions for the reason that incident.
Chaundhry stated Breest even texted a pal the next day and bragged about giving Haggis oral intercourse.
“Haleigh Breest will let you know that it was rape in order that you'll give her a variety of Paul Haggis’ cash,” the lawyer stated throughout opening statements.
Haggis, a former devotee of the Church of Scientology, has claimed that the claims in opposition to him had been orchestrated by the church as payback after he denounced it in 2009.
His three daughters have been in courtroom, with one attributable to testify on his behalf.
Breest is about to proceed testifying Friday.
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