Paul Haggis Trial: Filmmaker Testifies About Alleged Assault At Banff TV Festival In 2006
deadline.comA Canadian woman testifying in the sexual assault civil trial of filmmaker Paul Haggis said Monday that when she rejected Haggis’ sexual advances at a television industry festival in Canada in 2006, he pinned her against a wall in his hotel room, and later groped and shoved her as she prepared to leave the hotel in a taxi.
The woman, who Deadline is not identifying by name, is one of four that lawyers for plaintiff Haleigh Breest plan to call to the stand with similar allegations of rape or attempted sexual assault.
Breest, who has accused Haggis of raping her in 2013 when she was an events publicist, returned to the stand on Monday afternoon to resume a lengthy cross-examination that left her in tears Friday and brought the day’s testimony to an early close.
The judge, Sabrina Kraus, allowed the other accuser to go first, out of turn, citing scheduling issues. In more than two hours on the stand, Jane Doe said she attended the Banff World Television Festival in June 2006 on a prize fellowship in order to make industry contacts and pitch documentary projects; she has since left the field.
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