In a #MeToo second, Hollywood figures face season of trials
8 min readBy Associated Press
NEW YORK: The #MeToo motion is having one other second within the highlight as high-profile sexual assault trials play out in courtrooms from coast to coast.
Five years after allegations towards film mogul Harvey Weinstein triggered a wave of sexual misconduct claims in Hollywood and past, he and “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson are combating legal rape costs at trials down the corridor from one another in Los Angeles.
In New York, trials are underway in sexual assault lawsuits towards actor Kevin Spacey and screenwriter-director Paul Haggis, each Oscar winners. Spacey’s defence rested Wednesday whereas legal professionals for Haggis and his accuser gave opening statements in an adjoining courthouse. All of the boys deny the allegations.
A forcible touching case towards one other Academy Award winner, actor Cuba Gooding Jr., wrapped up in New York final week with a responsible plea to a non-criminal harassment violation and no jail time, to the dismay of not less than a few of his accusers.
The confluence is a coincidence, however a hanging one, amid a cultural motion that has demanded visibility and accountability.
“We’re still very early on in this time of reckoning,” stated Debra Katz, a Washington-based lawyer who has represented many sexual assault accusers. She is not concerned within the Haggis, Masterson, Spacey or Weinstein trials.
Besides their #MeToo reverberations, each Haggis’ case and Masterson’s have turn out to be boards for scrutinizing the Church of Scientology, although from totally different views.
In the case towards Haggis, publicist Haleigh Breest claims that the “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” screenwriter pressured her to carry out oral intercourse and raped her after she reluctantly agreed to a drink in his Manhattan condo after a 2013 film premiere. She’s searching for unspecified damages.
She did not go public till after the allegations towards Weinstein burst into view in 2017 and Haggis condemned him.
“The hypocrisy of it made her blood boil,” lawyer Zoe Salzman stated in her opening assertion.
Jurors may even hear from 4 different ladies who informed Breest’s legal professionals that Haggis sexually assaulted them, or tried to take action, in separate encounters. One of them testified Wednesday, by way of videotaped questioning, that Haggis raped her throughout an after-hours assembly in her workplace in 1996 when each labored on a Canadian TV present.
The jury will not hear, nevertheless, that Italian authorities this summer season investigated a sexual assault allegation towards Haggis, which he denied.
Haggis maintains that his encounter with Breest was consensual, and defence legal professional Priya Chaudhry famous that the opposite ladies who’re set to testify by no means took authorized motion of their very own towards him.
“Paul Haggis is relieved that he finally gets his day in court,” Chaudhry informed jurors.
Both sides pointed to what Breest texted to a good friend the day after the alleged assault.
Her lawyer emphasised that Breest wrote that “he was so rough and aggressive. Never, ever again … And I kept saying no.” Haggis’ legal professional, in the meantime, stated Breest added “lol” — widespread texting shorthand for laughter — when she talked about performing oral intercourse, and that she informed the good friend she needed to be alone with Haggis once more to “see what happens.”
Chaudhry argued that Breest falsely claimed rape to angle for a payout. But the legal professional additionally recommended one other clarification for the allegations.
Promising “circumstantial evidence,” she recommended that Scientologists ginned up Breest’s lawsuit to discredit him after he grew to become a distinguished detractor.
The church denies any involvement, and Breest’s legal professionals have referred to as the notion a baseless conspiracy idea.
“Scientology has nothing to do with this case” or with any of Haggis’ accusers, she informed jurors. The church has stated the identical.
Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals centered on non secular betterment. Science fiction and fantasy writer L. Ron Hubbard’s 1950 ebook “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” is a foundational textual content.
The faith has gained a following amongst such celebrities as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. But some high-profile members have damaged with it, together with Haggis, singer Lisa Marie Presley and actor Leah Remini.
In a memoir and documentary collection, Remini stated the church makes use of manipulative and abusive techniques to indoctrinate followers into placing its targets above all else, and he or she maintained that it labored to discredit critics who spoke out.
The church has vociferously disputed the claims.
Haggis says he was a Scientologist for 3 many years earlier than leaving the church in 2009. He slammed it as “a cult” in a 2011 New Yorker article that later knowledgeable a ebook and an HBO documentary, and he foreshadowed that retribution would come within the type of “a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.”
The church, which did not reply to a request for remark this week, has repeatedly stated Haggis lied about its practices to get consideration for himself and his profession.
Masterson’s lawyer, in the meantime, is asking jurors to ignore the actor’s affiliation with Scientology, although prosecutors say the church discouraged two of his three accusers from going to authorities. All three are former members.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday in a $40 million lawsuit introduced by actor Anthony Rapp who says Spacey made a sexual move at him in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey denies the encounter ever occurred.
Weinstein is going through his second legal trial, this time set in L.A. and involving 5 ladies and a number of rapes and sexual assault costs. He is already serving a 23-year jail sentence on a rape and sexual assault conviction involving two ladies in New York.
The Associated Press doesn’t often identify folks alleging sexual assault except they arrive ahead publicly, as Breest and Rapp have carried out.
NEW YORK: The #MeToo motion is having one other second within the highlight as high-profile sexual assault trials play out in courtrooms from coast to coast.
Five years after allegations towards film mogul Harvey Weinstein triggered a wave of sexual misconduct claims in Hollywood and past, he and “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson are combating legal rape costs at trials down the corridor from one another in Los Angeles.
In New York, trials are underway in sexual assault lawsuits towards actor Kevin Spacey and screenwriter-director Paul Haggis, each Oscar winners. Spacey’s defence rested Wednesday whereas legal professionals for Haggis and his accuser gave opening statements in an adjoining courthouse. All of the boys deny the allegations.
A forcible touching case towards one other Academy Award winner, actor Cuba Gooding Jr., wrapped up in New York final week with a responsible plea to a non-criminal harassment violation and no jail time, to the dismay of not less than a few of his accusers.
The confluence is a coincidence, however a hanging one, amid a cultural motion that has demanded visibility and accountability.
“We’re still very early on in this time of reckoning,” stated Debra Katz, a Washington-based lawyer who has represented many sexual assault accusers. She is not concerned within the Haggis, Masterson, Spacey or Weinstein trials.
Besides their #MeToo reverberations, each Haggis’ case and Masterson’s have turn out to be boards for scrutinizing the Church of Scientology, although from totally different views.
In the case towards Haggis, publicist Haleigh Breest claims that the “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” screenwriter pressured her to carry out oral intercourse and raped her after she reluctantly agreed to a drink in his Manhattan condo after a 2013 film premiere. She’s searching for unspecified damages.
She did not go public till after the allegations towards Weinstein burst into view in 2017 and Haggis condemned him.
“The hypocrisy of it made her blood boil,” lawyer Zoe Salzman stated in her opening assertion.
Jurors may even hear from 4 different ladies who informed Breest’s legal professionals that Haggis sexually assaulted them, or tried to take action, in separate encounters. One of them testified Wednesday, by way of videotaped questioning, that Haggis raped her throughout an after-hours assembly in her workplace in 1996 when each labored on a Canadian TV present.
The jury will not hear, nevertheless, that Italian authorities this summer season investigated a sexual assault allegation towards Haggis, which he denied.
Haggis maintains that his encounter with Breest was consensual, and defence legal professional Priya Chaudhry famous that the opposite ladies who’re set to testify by no means took authorized motion of their very own towards him.
“Paul Haggis is relieved that he finally gets his day in court,” Chaudhry informed jurors.
Both sides pointed to what Breest texted to a good friend the day after the alleged assault.
Her lawyer emphasised that Breest wrote that “he was so rough and aggressive. Never, ever again … And I kept saying no.” Haggis’ legal professional, in the meantime, stated Breest added “lol” — widespread texting shorthand for laughter — when she talked about performing oral intercourse, and that she informed the good friend she needed to be alone with Haggis once more to “see what happens.”
Chaudhry argued that Breest falsely claimed rape to angle for a payout. But the legal professional additionally recommended one other clarification for the allegations.
Promising “circumstantial evidence,” she recommended that Scientologists ginned up Breest’s lawsuit to discredit him after he grew to become a distinguished detractor.
The church denies any involvement, and Breest’s legal professionals have referred to as the notion a baseless conspiracy idea.
“Scientology has nothing to do with this case” or with any of Haggis’ accusers, she informed jurors. The church has stated the identical.
Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals centered on non secular betterment. Science fiction and fantasy writer L. Ron Hubbard’s 1950 ebook “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” is a foundational textual content.
The faith has gained a following amongst such celebrities as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. But some high-profile members have damaged with it, together with Haggis, singer Lisa Marie Presley and actor Leah Remini.
In a memoir and documentary collection, Remini stated the church makes use of manipulative and abusive techniques to indoctrinate followers into placing its targets above all else, and he or she maintained that it labored to discredit critics who spoke out.
The church has vociferously disputed the claims.
Haggis says he was a Scientologist for 3 many years earlier than leaving the church in 2009. He slammed it as “a cult” in a 2011 New Yorker article that later knowledgeable a ebook and an HBO documentary, and he foreshadowed that retribution would come within the type of “a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.”
The church, which did not reply to a request for remark this week, has repeatedly stated Haggis lied about its practices to get consideration for himself and his profession.
Masterson’s lawyer, in the meantime, is asking jurors to ignore the actor’s affiliation with Scientology, although prosecutors say the church discouraged two of his three accusers from going to authorities. All three are former members.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday in a $40 million lawsuit introduced by actor Anthony Rapp who says Spacey made a sexual move at him in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey denies the encounter ever occurred.
Weinstein is going through his second legal trial, this time set in L.A. and involving 5 ladies and a number of rapes and sexual assault costs. He is already serving a 23-year jail sentence on a rape and sexual assault conviction involving two ladies in New York.
The Associated Press doesn’t often identify folks alleging sexual assault except they arrive ahead publicly, as Breest and Rapp have carried out.
