Trump-Hating, Oscar Winning Writer/Director, Paul Haggis Is Arrested For Rape In Italy

Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis (Crash) was detained on Sunday in the southern Italian town of Ostuni on charges of sexual assault and aggravated personal injury, according to multiple reports in the Italian media and a statement by the public prosecutors of the nearby city of Brindisi.

A young woman, identified only as being “foreign,” that is not Italian, has pressed charges against Haggis, accusing the two-time Oscar winner of forcing her to engage in sexual intercourse over the course of two days in Ostuni, where Haggis was scheduled to hold a series of master classes at the Allora Fest, a new film festival launched by L.A.-based Italian journalist Silvia Bizio and Spanish art critic Sol Costales Doulton that is set to run from June 21-26.

The woman was taken to the Papola Casale airport in Brindisi on Sunday morning and left there despite her “precarious physical and psychological conditions,” according to an Italian police report. She was then aided by airport staff and police officers and taken to the hospital. She subsequently filed formal charges.

In 2018, the publicist Haleigh Breest sued Haggis, who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay to Million Dollar Baby and wrote and directed Oscar best picture winner Crash, alleging he had violently raped her in her New York apartment after a premiere in 2013. In the wake of her allegations, three more women came forward with separate sexual misconduct allegations against Haggis. Haggis has denied all the claims.