After a court hearing in New York yesterday, Paul Haggis finally got the trial date that both sides in his case have been requesting for more than two years. But when we heard the date, we had to do a double-take.
For now anyway, the civil trial of Haleigh Breest versus Paul Haggis in New York, and the criminal rape trial of Danny Masterson in Los Angeles, both have start dates of Tuesday, October 11.
While this presents an untenable situation for a dedicated Scientology watcher like your proprietor, we have a feeling that things will change between now and then so that we can pay full attention to both matters.
Both trials have been a long time in coming. On March 3, 2017, we first broke the news that the LAPD was investigating Masterson over allegations by three women who claimed that they’d been raped by the That ’70s Show actor. At that time, the accusers were unhappy with the way the LAPD was handling the investigation, and we didn’t know if the District Attorney’s office would file charges against Masterson.
Later that year, on December 15, 2017, Paul Haggis and Haleigh Breest filed lawsuits against each other at nearly the same time. Haggis’s suit was filed that day at 2:02 pm. Breest’s lawsuit against Haggis was recorded at 6:38 pm.
In his lawsuit, Haggis was alleging that he was being extorted by Breest, saying that the film publicist’s claims of being raped by him after attending a 2013 movie premiere was just a shakedown attempt. His lawsuit was later dismissed. After news of the lawsuits broke in the news, three additional women came forward and were interviewed by the Associated Press as they were added as witnesses to Breest’s case. Two of the women, who are unidentified, claimed that they had been harassed by Haggis, the third claimed that she had been raped by him in 1996.
In the Masterson case, his accusers continued to wait for the DA’s office to make a decision about charging him, but then in August 2019 they filed a civil lawsuit against Masterson and the Church of Scientology, alleging that they were being harassed for coming forward. (That case has a significant hearing tomorrow, the first after the lawsuit was revived by an appeals court that struck down a ruling in favor of Scientology ‘arbitration.’)
Masterson was finally charged criminally by the DA in June 2020, but the case has been delayed by the pandemic and by Masterson’s strategy of filing every possible motion and appeal to slow the case down.
While Masterson was trying to slow down his case, Haggis was trying to speed his up. The lawsuit was being delayed by a clogged New York civil court system and exacerbated by the pandemic. With Breest’s agreement, Haggis filed a motion pushing for a court date last year hoping to get the case moved up in the queue. In an interview, he told journalist Bryan Seymour that he believed evidence in the case — specifically, Breest’s electronic communications — would prove his claim that his encounter with her was consensual. (Haggis had gone public as a defector from Scientology in 2009, and in 2011 he predicted to New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright, “These people have long memories. My bet is that, within two years, you’re going to read something about me in a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.” Supporters of Haggis, like Leah Remini and Mike Rinder, have suggested that the allegations against Haggis are part of a Scientology operation.)
Haggis’s motion for a trial date was denied in September 2021, and the case dragged on without any action. But then, last week, Haggis was arrested in Italy with allegations that he had sexually assaulted a British woman over several days at a hotel in Ostuni where Haggis was about to teach master classes at a film festival. Haggis’s attorney claimed that it was a case of a consensual encounter that turned uncomfortable because the woman believed Haggis was going to put her in a future James Bond movie. For now, Haggis is confined in a hotel on house arrest as local officials try to figure out what actually happened.
And then, surprisingly, the court back in New York, after no word for months, suddenly wanted the two sides in the Breest v Haggis lawsuit to come in for a pretrial hearing yesterday. As a result of that hearing, the case now has an October 11 trial date.
In the Masterson case, meanwhile, on Thursday Judge Charlaine Olmedo will rule on Masterson’s latest attempt to dismiss the matter. If she denies his motion, trial is, for now, scheduled to begin in Los Angeles on October 11.
Will they both really begin then? We think it’s possible, but probably not likely.
Haggis has been asking for a court date, saying that he believes evidence in the case will prove his version of events, and so we wouldn’t expect that he’d want to delay it further. But if he’s still stuck in Italy in October, can the trial proceed? We emailed his attorney, Priya Chaudhry, but other than confirm the trial date she didn’t give us any guidance about whether Haggis could testify in the case remotely if he’s still in Italy.
Masterson’s chances for pushing his criminal trial back may be more likely. He managed to get it moved from August 29 to October 11 by firing his famous defense attorney Tom Mesereau and promoting the attorneys who had been writing motions for him, Shawn Holley and Philip Cohen. At a hearing on May 31, Judge Olmedo asked Holley and Cohen if they were prepared to be Masterson’s lawyers through trial, and they said they were. She then granted the six-week delay.
Our experts tell us, however, that Masterson could probably get away with this one more time, replacing Holley and Cohen with yet another set of attorneys, and getting another delay. One expert told us they think a January trial is probably more likely in the Masterson case.
For now, however, both trials for Haggis and Masterson are scheduled at the same time. Does that benefit either of them if it happens? Which one would get more press? We’re not sure. Please let us know what you think.
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I really wish neither of these cases even existed.
To me, it seems a real case (against Masterson) and a couple of false cases (against Haggis), going on here.
I hope Haggis wins, and Masterson loses.
Haggis press will likely overshadow Masterson's press. I don't know the right words to describe this.
It's frustratingly long drawn out. Paul Haggis prediction to Bryan Seymour was astounding foresight.