Former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein and Netflix announced Tuesday that they have reached a settlement in the defamation case she filed against the streaming platform over her performance in the 2019 miniseries “When They See Us.”
Fairstein filed the lawsuit in March 2020, less than a year after the Ava DuVernay-directed series debuted on Netflix. The defamation case was set to go to trial later this month.
“The parties announce that they have resolved this process. Netflix will donate $1 million to the Innocence Project. Ms. Fairstein will not receive any money as part of this settlement,” Netflix, DuVernay, Attica Locke and Fairstein said in a joint statement.
In a separate statement, DuVernay criticized the former prosecutor, saying Fairstein dropped his case rather than face the defendants in open court in a matter of days. “She walked away without any kind of payment to herself or her lawyers rather than face questioning before a New York jury,” DuVernay said.
The director said Fairstein’s rejection of a confidentiality agreement allows DuVernay, for the first time, to share how she feels about Fairstein’s allegations.
“I believe Linda Fairstein was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the Central Park Jogger case, which resulted in the wrongful conviction of five innocent black and brown boys,” DuVernay said.
Fairstein’s attorney, Miltenberg, disputed many of DuVernay’s claims, saying in a statement Tuesday that settlement negotiations took place over a few days and included “a standard confidentiality agreement” as well as a compensation proposal limited to attorneys’ fees. by Fairstein.
He said DuVernay’s attorney “was not involved in any direct settlement discussions.”
Miltenberg also said that future broadcasts of “When They See Us” will include a note to viewers stating that elements of the film have been fictionalized.
Netflix could not be reached for comment Tuesday night on DuVernay’s latest statement.
After the series’ release, Fairstein was dropped by her publisher and resigned from her position on the board of trustees of Vassar College and organizations following backlash for her role in the infamous prosecution.
The series tells the true story of five black teenagers who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape and beating of a white jogger in New York’s Central Park. DNA evidence was eventually used to overturn his convictions. The city ultimately agreed to a legal settlement to pay the exonerated men $41 million.
Fairstein, who was head of the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit at the time of the case, felt she was unfairly portrayed in the Netflix series.
“Today, after nearly five years of litigation, Netflix, Ava DuVernay and Attica Locke – the people responsible for the 2019 series “WHEN THEY SEE US” – have agreed to the resolution of my defamation lawsuit,” Fairstein said in a statement. statement to NBC News. “The decision to end this fight was not easy. We were prepared to present a compelling case to the jury, as articulated by Federal District Judge Kevin Castel in his powerful ruling rejecting the defendants’ summary judgment motion.”
She added: “The defendants sought to portray me as the villain of the series and, in doing so, ‘reverse engineered plot points to attribute actions, responsibilities and views’ to me that they weren’t minenor were they supported by a single piece of evidence in defendants’ so-called substantial research materials.”
Miltenberg said earlier in the day that the case “set a precedent.”
“It represented the first time that a defamation case relating to a streaming drama series had advanced through summary judgment and was on the brink of trial. We are confident that we would have won.”
In her statement Tuesday, DuVernay said Fairstein wanted the settlement money and a warning about the future broadcast of “When They See Us” that said everything about her in the miniseries was fabricated.
The defendants balked at the ideas, DuVernay said, but made some progress on a settlement that would have stipulated Fairstein’s silence on the case in exchange for DuVernay and Locke, the miniseries’ co-writer, silence about the former prosecutor.
But DuVernay said Fairstein refused to stay silent about the Central Park Five. “Your desire to continue to promote your narrative of guilt about the Exonerated Five, and not accept a silent agreement, allows me to share for the first time how I feel about your statements,” said the director.
She condemned the former prosecutor for what she described as the role of “victim” in the saga. DuVernay said Fairstein watched as the boys were questioned as adults, without their parents present, after the 1989 crime, and even prevented a mother from seeing one of the boys.
Any twist in the case and the miniseries, DuVernay said, was the result of Fairstein’s own actions.
“I hope that one day Linda Fairstein can come to terms with the role she played in this miscarriage of justice and finally accept responsibility,” the director said.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
