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 for her portrayal in the 2019 miniseries “When They See Us.”
Fairstein filed the lawsuit in March 2020, less than a year after the series directed by Ava DuVernay debuted on Netflix. The defamation case was set to go to trial later this month.
“The parties announce that they have resolved this lawsuit. 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 excoriated the former prosecutor, saying Fairstein pulled the plug on her case rather than face the defendants in open court in a matter of days. “She walked away with no payment to her or her lawyers of any kind, rather than face cross examination before a New York jury,” DuVernay said.
The director said that Fairstein’s rejection of a confidentiality agreement allows DuVernay to, for the first time, share what she feels about Fairstein’s claims.
“I believe that Linda Fairstein was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the Central Park Jogger case that resulted in the wrongful conviction of five innocent Black and Brown boys,” DuVernay said.
Fairstein’s lawyer, Miltenberg, disputed many of DuVernay’s assertions, saying in a statement late Tuesday that settlement negotiations took place over a few days and included “a standard confidentiality agreement,” as well as a proposal for compensation limited to Fairstein’s attorney fees.
He said DuVernay’s attorney “was not involved in any direct settlement discussions.”
Miltenberg also said future streaming of “When They See Us” will include a note to viewers stating that elements of the film were fictionalized.
Netflix could not be reached for comment Tuesday night about DuVernay’s latest statement.
Following the series’ release, Fairstein was dropped by her publisher and resigned from her position on Vassar College’s board of trustees and from organizations after backlash over her role in the infamous prosecution.
The series tells the true story of five Black teenagers who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape and beating of a white jogger in New York City’s Central Park. DNA evidence was eventually used to overturn their convictions. The city ultimately agreed in a legal settlement to pay the exonerated men $41 million.
Fairstein, who was the 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 — those responsible for the 2019 Series “WHEN THEY SEE US” — agreed to a resolution of my defamation lawsuit,” Fairstein said in a statement to NBC News. “The decision to conclude this fight was not an easy one. We were prepared to present a compelling case to the jury, as articulated by Federal District Judge Kevin Castel in his powerful decision dismissing the defendants’ summary judgment claim.”
She added: “The defendants sought to portray me as the Series’ villain and, in doing so, ‘reverse-engineered plot points to attribute actions, responsibilities and viewpoints’ to me that were not mine, nor were they supported by a single piece of evidence in the defendants’ so-called substantial research materials.”
Miltenberg said earlier in the day that the case was “precedent-setting.
“It represented the first time that a defamation case concerning a dramatic streaming series has advanced through summary judgment and stood at the brink of trial. We are confident that we would have won.”
In her statement Tuesday, DuVernay said Fairstein wanted settlement money and a disclaimer on future streaming of “When They See Us” that said everything about her in the miniseries was fabricated.
The defendants turned the ideas down, DuVernay said, but made some progress on a deal that would have stipulated silence on the case by Fairstein in exchange for silence on the former prosecutor by DuVernay and Locke, the miniseries cowriter.
But DuVernay said Fairstein refused to be silent about the Central Park Five. “Her desire to continue to push her narrative of guilt about the Exonerated Five, and not accept an agreement of silence, allows me to share what I feel about her claims for the first time,” the director said.
She decried the former prosecutor for what she described as playing the “victim” in the saga. DuVernay said Fairstein stood by as the boys were questioned as adults, without parents present, following the 1989 crime, and even prevented a mother from seeing one of the boys.
Any blowback from 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 part she played in this miscarriage of justice and finally accept responsibility,” the director said.