Jury deliberations begin in rape civil case vs. Paul Haggis

NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors have begun deliberating in a civil trial involving Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis and a publicist who accused him of rape. The jury’s discussions began Thursday after three weeks of testimony. Haggis and his accuser gave divergent accounts of what happened between them after he invited her to his New York apartment for a drink on Jan. 31, 2013. The 36-year-old woman says Haggis quickly became sexually aggressive, though she told him she wasn’t willing, and forced her to perform oral sex and raped her. The 69-year-old screenwriter and director says the encounter was consensual and the woman initiated parts of it. She is seeking unspecified damages.