Filmmaker Paul Haggis ordered to pay £8.5m total in rape case

Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis has been ordered to pay an additional 2.5 million dollars (£2.1 million) in damages in a rape lawsuit, bringing the total to 10 million dollars (£8.5 million) for a woman who said he sexually assaulted her nearly a decade ago.

While accuser Haleigh Breest’s lawyers called the verdict just, Mr Haggis insisted that he had been falsely accused and was financially ruined by fighting the civil case.

He vowed to appeal.

“I can’t live with lies like this. I will die clearing my name,” he said as he left court.

He says they had a consensual encounter.

The jury sided with Ms Breest last week, awarded her 7.5 million dollars (£6.4 million) in compensatory damages for suffering and decided that she was also due punitive damages.

Jurors returned to court on Monday to hear evidence about Mr Haggis’s finances and decide how much more he would have to pay.

They got a quick course in movie financing as Mr Haggis was questioned about his earnings on such films as Oscar best picture winners Crash and Million Dollar Baby, and the James Bond movies Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace.

While explaining the complexities of screenwriting compensation, he estimated that throughout his four decades in TV and movies he has made as much as 25 million dollars (£21 million) – before taxes, agents’ and other representatives’ fees and asset splits with his two ex-wives.

The 69-year-old filmmaker said during the trial that he had suffered various financial losses over the years – including the destruction of a poorly insured home in the 1994 Northridge earthquake – but that Ms Breest’s lawsuit wiped him out.

He said his legal bills topped 2.6 million dollars (£2.2 million), while his career abruptly dried up.

Ms Breest’s lawyers questioned Mr Haggis’s claims of being broke.

“Nothing Paul Haggis says can be trusted,” lawyer Ilann Maazel said.

After the verdict, he said the jury “did the right thing”.

Jurors left court without commenting.

Ms Breest, 36, said she suffered both professional and psychological harm from what happened after she accepted an invitation for a drink at his apartment following a movie premiere.

She declined to comment on Monday.

In a statement after the initial verdict on Thursday, she said she appreciated “the opportunity to seek justice and accountability in court – and that the jury chose to follow the facts – and believed me”.

She sued for unspecified damages.

Mr Haggis was not criminally charged in the matter.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Ms Breest has done.