Paul Haggis Trial: Psychologist Who Testified In Kevin Spacey Case Says Accuser Suffers From PTSD
deadline.comA psychologist who testified for Anthony Rapp in his failed case against fellow actor Kevin Spacey took the stand Friday, again for the plaintiff, in the New York sexual assault civil trial of filmmaker Paul Haggis.
As she did in the Rapp case earlier this month, Lisa Rocchio, a clinical and forensic psychologist based in Rhode Island, said that the accuser — in this case Haleigh Breest — suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by an alleged rape that is the basis of a claim for damages being weighed by the jury.
And again, Rocchio was challenged by the defense for her conclusions, sometimes in language nearly identical to the questions she faced from a lawyer for Spacey. “Have you ever evaluated someone who claimed sexual abuse and found that they were lying?” a lawyer for Haggis, Seth Zuckerman, asked Rocchio, referring to the 1,000-plus people she has treated in her career.
Rocchio said she had not. Before she testified, Zuckerman tried unsuccessfully to get the judge, Sabrina Kraus, to disqualify Rocchio as an expert and prevent her testimony before he set out to try to discredit her with the jury.
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