Former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein and Netflix announced Tuesday they've settled the defamation lawsuit she filed four years ago over her portrayal in the streaming service's miniseries about the five Black and Latino teenagers known as the now-exonerated Central Park Five.
Fairstein had argued that the 2019 four-part series "When They See Us" defamed her by portraying her as a "racist, unethical villain" and attributed actions, responsibilities and viewpoints that were not hers.
The case was expected to go to trial later this month. Fairstein said in a statement that "the decision to conclude this fight was not an easy one," expressing confidence she would have presented a "compelling case to the jury." While Fairstein will not receive any money as part of the settlement, Netflix has agreed to donate $1 million to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to exonerate people who've been wrongly convicted.
Viewers of the series will also now see a disclaimer that states, "While the motion picture is inspired by actual events and persons, certain characters, incidents, locations, dialogue, and names are fictionalized for the purposes of dramatization."
"This is what this case was all about – not about 'winning' or about any financial restitution, but about my reputation and that of my colleagues," she said in a statement. "It was about setting the historical record straight that the villainous caricature invented by the defendants and portrayed on screen was not me."
Fairstein was the top Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor in 1989 when the five teenagers were charged with a vicious attack on a jogger in Central Park. The convictions were overturned in 2002 after convicted murderer and serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to committing the crime alone. DNA linked him to it.
Fairstein, who became a best-selling crime author after retiring from the Manhattan district attorney's office, observed the boys' interrogation but didn't personally try the case.
She was dropped by her publisher and resigned from several boards she served on after "When They See Us," which dramatizes the events surrounding the trial, debuted.
Ava DuVernay, who directed and co-wrote the series, and Attica Locke, a writer and producer of the series, were named as defendants in the defamation lawsuit. DuVernay said in a statement posted on the social media platform X that she still believes that Fairstein was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the five teens.
"As the head of the Manhattan Sex Crimes unit, Linda Fairstein was in the precinct for over 35 hours straight while the boys were interrogated as adults, often without parents present," she said, claiming that Fairstein knew what was happening in the interrogation rooms.
DuVernay accused Fairstein of not being willing to face a jury of her peers.
"I hope that one day Linda Fairstein can come to terms with the part she played in this miscarriage of justice and finally accept responsibility" she said.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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