Oscar-Winner Paul Haggis Cleared of Charges in Italy
MILAN (Reuters) -An Italian judge has dismissed a case against Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Paul Haggis for alleged rape, his lawyers said on Wednesday.
Haggis, 72, was detained in June 2022 and spent 14 days under house arrest after a British woman accused him of raping her over a two-day period in the southern Italian town of Ostuni in the Puglia region, where he was teaching at a film event.
The court judge in the nearby city of Brindisi ruled no sexual act took place without consent, Haggis' lawyers said.
"For Mr Haggis, it is the end of a nightmare that has unfairly shattered the career of a film genius and 2006 Oscar winner," lawyers Michele Laforgia and Daniele Romeo said in a statement.
Haggis co-wrote and directed "Crash", a 2004 crime drama for which he won two Oscars, and also wrote "Million Dollar Baby", a sports drama directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, which was released the same year.
Haggis' lawyers said he would hold a press conference on Thursday at their law firm's offices in Bari, Puglia's regional capital.
The lawyer of the woman who filed the complaint against the screenwriter was not immediately available to comment.
In November 2022, a New York jury ordered Haggis to pay $10 million in damages for raping a publicist in his apartment nine years earlier.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Gavin Jones and Ewan Harwood)
