Scientology returned to the spotlight on Monday in the Paul Haggis civil rape trial. Its reemergence in the conversation comes as a surprise since both sides seemingly agreed last week there’s “no evidence” to suggest the person suing the Oscar-winning director for rape is tied to the controversial church.
Defense attorneys for Haggis called on former Scientologist Shawna Brakefield, who testified via video to jurors on Monday in a lower Manhattan courtroom. “Anybody who speaks publicly against the church is just a target for being destroyed,” she said. “I’ve seen it happen.”
Haleigh Breest — a former film publicist who is suing Haggis for claims the the filmmaker forced her to perform oral sex on him and then raped her in his Soho apartment in 2013 after a movie premiere — maintains she has no connection to the Church of Scientology. But the defense team for Haggis has repeatedly argued that Breest’s rape charge came in retaliation for Haggis’ decision to leave and then publicly criticize the Church of Scientology.
Brakefield, an Emmy-winning documentary producer, testified she was still a parishioner at the Church of Scientology when Haggis left the organization in October 2009. She remembers getting a call around that time from Tom Davis, the chief spokesperson and head of external affairs, who asked her to make copies of complaints or any negative comments made about Haggis.
“It was clear to me that he wasn’t after compliments and supportive material,” she testified to jurors. “He clearly wanted some kind of dirt.”
Brakefield said she didn’t comply with Davis’ request, but she found the orders to have “significance” since it was the first time he had ever called to request information about someone.
“It was a very intimidating phone call for me,” she recalled. “I felt that, as a member of the church, you were expected to be very loyal to the group and protect the group at all costs. And me not participating in it could have ramifications on me individually as a parishioner.”
Brakefield spoke about defamatory actions the Church has allegedly taken to silence its enemies, which ranged from personal attacks to publishing hate websites. She claims she doesn’t “know for sure” if the Church of Scientology is behind Breest’s case. But, she said, “When the news broke about this case, it dredged back up for me. The first thing I thought of was that the Church was behind it. It just had nothing to do with who Paul was.”
After the jury was dismissed for the day, plaintiff attorney Ilann Maazel told Variety that Davis’ story is “one big cynical distraction,” one that has no relevance to the larger case.
Alissa Haggis, the daughter of the “Crash and “Million Dollar Baby” filmmaker, also testified on Monday afternoon and illustrated her “all-encompassing” experiences of growing up in the Church of Scientology. “Everything is about the Church,” she said.
She left the Church when she was 18 because she realized she was gay. Paul Haggis parted with Scientology after 30 years over its opposition to gay marriage.
“I knew Scientology was very homophobic. I didn’t want to deal with that very much,” she said. “I did it very quietly because the rest of my family was still in there at that point.”
Maazel asked Alissa Haggis directly about evidence that Breest was connected to the Church, to which she said, “No, of course not.”
Alissa Haggis briefly worked in Hollywood, writing screenplays for Disney and other companies, but she believes she hasn’t gotten work in the entertainment industry since Breest’s allegations due to her last name.
“I don’t really have much of a career right now,” she said. “Hollywood won’t hire me because I have the last name Haggis.”
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