A murder case against “Crash” Oscar win 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 girl had accused the writer-director of raping her repeatedly over the course of two times in 2022 while they were both in area for Allora Fest, an entertainment-industry function.
“For Mr. Haggis, it is the close of a problem that has badly shattered the job of a movie talent and 2006 Oscar winner, ” doctors Michele Laforgia and Daniele Romeo said in a statement to the cable company.
After the criminal allegations were made , Haggis was detained by police in June, then held under apartment arrest at his motel until he was ordered released on July 4, 2022. He maintained he was innocent of the charges.
“Being accused of sexual assault, everything that I did not complete, was devastating and anything I hope no honest man will ever experience, ” Haggis said in a translated interview with European media outlet La Repubblica in July 2022. An Englishwoman who was 30 at the time said he forced her to had intercourse with him over two weeks at a bed-and-breakfast in Puglia and then dropped her off at a local airport while she was in a state of confusion.
“As I told the judge, my first blunder was allowing people who I scarcely knew to come and visit me. It was foolish, ” Haggis said in the July 12, 2022, meeting. “The next blunder was on the last night after an event occurred that I personally found particularly uncomfortable, I decided to end this condition; I took this man to the airport days before her journey. I’m upset with myself for these errors in judgment but cannot comprehend that they resulted in false and destructive charges against me. ”
The “Million Dollar Baby ” author said in the discussion that he lost at least two writing jobs because of his arrest. On Thursday, the lawyer who represented him in the October 2022 New York legal case said the European situation may have been aimed at sabotaging her clientele before that trial began.
“It was always clear that Paul was completely stupid [in the Roman case] — and that this person lied, ” attorney Priya Chaudhry said in a statement to The Times. “The schedule of the rest, and the necessity that it would be exposed, clearly suggest her false allegation was planned to destroy Paul’s another case on the eve of trial — consciously engineered to impose 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 did n’t appear in court — who did n’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.
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