Filmmaker Testifies About Alleged Assault At Banff TV Pageant In 2006 – Deadline

A Canadian lady testifying within the sexual assault civil trial of filmmaker Paul Haggis mentioned Monday that when she rejected Haggis’ sexual advances at a tv business competition in Canada in 2006, he pinned her towards a wall in his lodge room, and later groped and shoved her as she ready to depart the lodge in a taxi.

The lady, who Deadline isn’t figuring out by title, is one among 4 that attorneys for plaintiff Haleigh Breest plan to name to the stand with related allegations of rape or tried sexual assault. Breest, who has accused Haggis of raping her in 2013 when she was an occasions publicist, returned to the stand on Monday afternoon to renew a prolonged cross-examination that left her in tears Friday and introduced the day’s testimony to an early shut. The choose, Sabrina Kraus, allowed the opposite accuser to go first, out of flip, citing scheduling points.

In additional than two hours on the stand, Jane Doe mentioned she attended the Banff World Tv Pageant in June 2006 on a prize fellowship to be able to make business contacts and pitch documentary initiatives; she has since left the sphere. Haggis, who got here up by means of tv, was the keynote speaker and major honoree at a competition in Banff, Alberta, for his Oscar-winning work on Crash and Million Greenback Child.

“He had gained two Oscars just lately and that was large deal for a Canadian filmmaker,” the girl testified at present.

She mentioned she first noticed Haggis converse at a Q&A, after which sought him out at a pub the place attendees obtained to go to one-on-one with the competition’s visitor of honor. She mentioned the 2 exchanged jokes, pleasantries and talked store, after which Haggis invited her to an unique after-party on the competition’s lodge headquarters. “It seemed like an important alternative,” she mentioned.

As quickly as they climbed right into a cab collectively, she realized the way it might need appeared to different attendees on the pub, she advised a Breest lawyer, Zoe Salzman. 

”I mentioned I hope no one obtained the mistaken impression,” she testified. “He mentioned, ‘Individuals normally do.’ ” 

On the cab experience again to the lodge, Haggis gave the impression to be speaking and texting on his cell phone to substantiate the situation of the after-party, she testified. Again on the lodge they walked down a protracted hallway to a room “and he took out his key to open it,” she mentioned. “I used to be instantly apprehensive,” she mentioned. She mentioned she took a step backwards on the doorway and Haggis advised her, “Don’t fear,” as a result of the after-party was going to be in his room and extra individuals have been en route.

Inside, he poured them wine and held out the glass for her to step ahead and declare it, and when she did, he kissed her, the girl testified. “I used to be completely caught off guard,” she mentioned. She apologized. “I mentioned I’m so sorry if I gave you combined indicators. I’m right here for skilled causes,” she testified. 

Haggis apologized and instructed they simply sit on the sofa as an alternative and speak about her profession, she mentioned. However after 20 minutes or so he tried to kiss her once more and when she obtained up and backed away, she mentioned, she ultimately backed right into a wall with him advancing on her. He grabbed her arms and tried to kiss her as soon as extra, she testified. When she turned away to keep away from the kiss, she mentioned, “Mr. Haggis used his left hand to seize my face.”

“Minimize it out. You’re making me really feel like an asshole,” she mentioned he advised her. With one arm unpinned, she wriggled free and left the lodge room, and Haggis trailed her out, providing to pay for her cab again to the YMCA the place she and the opposite fellowship winners have been being put up for the competition. She mentioned she agreed to the fare, and when the cab arrived, he grabbed her breasts from behind and kissed her neck, after which shoved her forcefully towards the cab — exhausting sufficient that she stumbled. He mentioned he handed the driving force cash.

“I felt humiliated. I felt gross. I felt silly. I simply wished to get out of there,” the girl testified. Requested by Salzman why she felt silly, she replied, “As a result of I stupidly believed individuals have been coming” to the after-party at his lodge room although “a number of time had elapsed.”

On cross examination by a Haggis lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, the witness mentioned she by no means pitched Haggis on any of her mission concepts in any of the time she spoke with him.