‘Crash’ Director Paul Haggis Arrested on Sexual Assault Charges

Filmmaker Paul Haggis was arrested in Italy on Sunday and charged with sexual assault and aggravated personal injury. Haggis is best known for the 2004 crime drama Crash, for which he won an Oscar, but this is the second sexual assault allegation leveled against him in recent years. So far he and his representatives have not commented publicly on his arrest.

Italian media reported on Haggis’ arrest with official statements from the local authorities, according to a report by Entertainment Tonight. On Sunday, an unnamed woman was left at the Papola Casale airport in “precarious physical and psychological conditions.” Airport security and police saw that she was taken to a local hospital where she said that Haggis had sexually assaulted her over two days. She filed charges against the director and police set out to detain him.

Haggis was held in Ostuni, and so far his representatives have not revealed if he is still in custody. The director was supposed to teach master classes at the Allora Film Festival this week. Festival organizers gave a statement to Variety sharing their dismay at this news.

Organizers said they had “learned with dismay and shock the news that Paul Haggis is in custody for alleged violence.” They said they “immediately proceeded to remove any participation of the director from the event” and “At the same time, they express full solidarity with the woman involved… The themes chosen for the festival are, among others, those of equality, gender equality, and solidarity. As professionals and women they are dismayed and hope that the festival will help foster more information and awareness on such a topical and increasingly pressing issue.”

Haggis is facing four allegations of sexual assault here in the U.S. as well. In 2017, publicist Haleigh Breest filed a civil lawsuit against Haggis claiming that he had raped her in 2013. Three more women came forward after that, and a fifth joined the lawsuit in 2019. All four of those cases are still in progress. They have reportedly been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the alleged victims’ lawyers claimed that Haggis and his legal team were trying to slow or stop the process in a statement to Page Six.

“Paul Haggis is trying to stop the other women he has sexually assaulted from providing testimony in this case,” she said. “Haggis’ lawyers have repeatedly told us that they will file a motion for a protective order to stop these depositions.”