Oscar-Winning Filmmaker Paul Haggis has been accused in a civil lawsuit of raping a publicist and since the lawsuit, three more women have come forward to accuse Haggis of rape too.
<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/5b232c174f4fbdc872c1d18b08fb744ea35bbb1257215d4a6430076372307cb6.jpg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">
<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit: stuff.co.nz</span>
Christine Lepera, Haggis' attorney, said, "He didn't rape anybody." 64-year-old Haggis is known for being the screenwriter behind hits like Million Dollar Baby and Crash. He maintains that he is innocent and characterizes the lawsuit as extortion.
Haggis denies the rape allegations in a counter-complaint to the lawsuit and said the accuser demanded $9 million to drop the lawsuit, which Haggis calls extortion.
The plaintiff filed the lawsuit on December 15 in Manhattan and has been identified by court papers as Haleigh Breest. Three other women have come forward to Breest's New York attorney's to say they too were raped but wanted to remain anonymous.
Breest's attorney filed an amended complaint to include details of the additional allegations from the three new accusers Friday afternoon. In a separate interview, the three new victims provided detailed accounts of the rapes they say occurred between 1996 and 2015.
The women say they were just getting started in their entertainment careers when the Hollywood heavyweight lured them to private places under the guise of discussing professional opportunities.
The victims say the assaults began with Haggis first kissing them, and then when they fought back he escalated his aggression into sexual assault.
The newest accuser says she was 28 at the time and working as a publicist on a television show being produced by Haggis in 1996. She said Haggis demanded to speak to her in the back office and when she met him he began kissing her before the attack escalated.
The women have come forward in part due to the #MeToo movement inspired by sexual misconduct by powerful men like Harvey Weinstein and Paul Haggis. The lawsuit goes on to describe Haggis as "sexually aggressive" and asking his victim, "You're scared of me, aren't you?"
The third accuser says she was in her 30's at the time and went to meet Haggis around 9 p.m. at his Los Angeles office to pitch him a television script. When she arrived, the other employees quickly left and there was a wine near the couch.
Haggis told his victim his wife had agreed to extramarital relationships but this caused her to panic and leave when he tried to kiss her.
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