Paul Haggis’ lawyer claimed the Oscar-winning director is “totally innocent” after experiences surfaced he was arrested within the southern area of Italy on Sunday and positioned underneath investigation of allegations that he sexually assaulted a girl.
“Under Italian Law, I cannot discuss the evidence,” Haggis’ lawyer Priya Chaudhry informed Fox Information Digital. “That said, I am confident that all allegations will be dismissed against Mr. Haggis.
“He’s completely harmless, and prepared to completely cooperate with the authorities so the reality comes out shortly.”
Haggis, 69, has been in Italy for the Allora film festival that begins on Tuesday in Ostuni, a tourist town in Puglia, the region that forms the “heel” of the Italian peninsula.
The news agency LaPresse, and several additional Italian media groups, carried a written statement from prosecutors in the city of Brindisi that they were investigating allegations a “younger overseas lady” — meaning non-Italian — was forced to have “non-consensual” sexual relations over two days with the Canadian screenwriter.
Prosecutors Antonio Negro and Livia Orlando, who are conducting the investigation, said in the statement that the woman was “pressured to hunt medical care” following the sexual encounters.
Italian news media reported that after a few days “of non-consensual relations, the girl was accompanied by the person” to Brindisi airport on Sunday and “was left there at daybreak regardless of (her) precarious bodily and psychological situations.”
Prosecutors said airport staff and police noticed her “apparent confused state,” and after initial treatment, took her to Brindisi’s police headquarters, where officers accompanied her to a local hospital for examination.
Authorities said they weren’t authorized to give out information about the case, including her nationality or age, or Haggis’ whereabouts.
Haggis won an Oscar in 2006 for best original screenplay for “Crash,” which was inspired by his own real-life incident where he was carjacked outside a video store in Los Angeles.
The Canadian director, who also wrote “Million Greenback Child” and “Flags of Our Fathers,” has been accused of rape and sexual misconduct by a total of four women, citing incidents that allegedly occurred between 1996 and 2015.
Publicist Haleigh Breest filed a civil lawsuit in December 2017, and claimed Haggis raped her on Jan. 31, 2013 in a New York City apartment. Her suit prompted three additional women to come forward under the condition of anonymity, according to AP.
Haggis was a Scientologist for 35 years and left the church in 2009. Shortly after the lawsuits, Leah Remini and her “Scientology and the Aftermath” co-host, Mike Rinder, released a lengthy statement defending Haggis and claiming the women in question may have suspect motivations for coming forward.
“There’s loads of cause to fret about defending anybody accused of sexual assault in immediately’s local weather. However the concern of penalties for talking our fact has not held us again prior to now and isn’t about to begin now,” they wrote. “We have now supported victims of sexual abuse who’ve reached out to us and have labored with them and legislation enforcement to make sure justice is completed for each victims and the accused. We have now prevented trial by media.”
In their post, they defended Haggis’ character and suggested the Church of Scientology is behind the three additional accusers that are “abruptly showing out of the woodwork.”
“We anticipate the subsequent ‘revelations’ about Paul Haggis on this marketing campaign to destroy him to be primarily based on data culled from his Scientology information within the type of extra ‘nameless’ accusers, hiding behind a lawyer who won’t ever must disclose who’s paying their invoice.”
Haggis has denied the original rape allegation in a counter-complaint and said the accuser and her lawyer had demanded a $9 million payment to avoid legal action, which he characterized as extortion.
“Paul Haggis deserves, primarily based on his file as a gentleman and humanitarian, to be judged when all of the proof has been taken underneath penalty of perjury in a court docket of legislation,” Remini and Rinder wrote. “As a result of claims of nameless accusers who’ve NOT gone to legislation enforcement aren’t credible.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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