Tag: central park 5
Netflix and Ava DuVernay Win Dismissal of Defamation Suit
A federal judge ruled in favor of Netflix and director Ava DuVernay on Monday, throwing out a defamation suit over a their miniseries about the Central Park jogger case.
John E. Reid and Associates, a police training firm, filed the suit last fall, alleging that the series had falsely portrayed the “Reid Technique,” its widely used method for conducting interrogations.
In his ruling, Judge Manish S. Shah found that the series’ depiction was protected under the First Amendment.
The four-part Netflix series covered the conviction and ultimate exoneration of five black and Latino teenagers who were accused of assaulting and raping a woman in Central Park in 1989. In the series, a fictionalized prosecutor confronts an NYPD detective with the allegation that he had coerced a confession.
“You squeezed statements out of them after 42 hours of questioning and coercing, without food, bathroom breaks, withholding parental supervision,” the character says. “The Reid Technique has been universally rejected.”
The police training firm alleged that the statement falsely characterized the technique, and incorrectly stated that the technique had been “universally rejected.”
But Shah found that the show employed loose and hyperbolic rhetoric about the technique, protecting it from a defamation claim.
“‘Universally’ is hyperbolic and the prosecutor cannot be taken literally to assert that all intelligent life in the known universe has rejected the technique — which means his statement is an imprecise, overwrought exclamation,” Shah wrote. “The statement was also made by a fictionalized character, during a fictionalized conversation… And while labeling something ‘fictitious’ will not insulate it from a defamation action… placing non-verifiable hyperbole in the mouth of a fictionalized character with an ax to grind provides a few layers of protection from civil damages for defamation.”
Last week, former prosecutor Linda Fairstein filed her own defamation lawsuit against Netflix and DuVernay over the series, claiming that she was falsely portrayed as the racist mastermind behind the prosecution of the Central Park Five.
Netflix said it would vigorously defend that lawsuit.
Article via MSN
Let’s talk about Central Park Five -“when they see us” by Ava Duvernay
‘When They See Us’ Ava Duvernay Sued Over ‘Reid Technique’ … Creator Says Film Trashed His Work
Netflix and “When They See Us” creator Ava Duvernay are being sued over the police interrogation technique depicted in the film because its creator claims the movie got his method all wrong.
A former cop named John Reid claims in his lawsuit … the Emmy-winning film defamed him by saying his method was used to squeeze statements out of the Central Park 5 suspects.
In particular, he points out a scene from episode 4 where a detective and someone from the D.A.’s Office are discussing the interrogation of the suspects. The prosecution staffer says to the detective, “You squeezed statements out of them after 42 hours of questioning and coercing, without food, bathroom breaks, withholding parental supervision. The Reid Technique has been universally rejected. That’s truth to you.”
In the lawsuit, Reid says the technique he created specifically does not teach withholding parental supervision, denying interview subjects any of their rights or making threats of physical harm. He claims it specifically calls for extra caution when interviewing minors.
In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Reid questions Duvernay saying, “We did our research” before making the film by inviting law enforcement personnel to discuss the case. Reid claims if that were true — Ava would have learned his technique disavows the type of things depicted in the movie.
He believes the filmmakers deliberately “fabricated a scene designed to broadcast to the audience a conversation they made up that included false statements as to the Reid Technique.”
He goes on to defend the Reid Technique, saying it’s widely used by law enforcement … and calls for a structured interview and interrogation process that consists of three stages: fact analysis, investigative non-confrontational interview and interrogation.
According to the docs, Reid says his method is anything but “universally rejected.” He says he’s conducted more than 6,500 seminars and trained more than 200,000 people to use it, since 2002.
Reid says he demanded a retraction in July … 2 months after the series was released, but Netflix refused. He’s now suing Netflix and Ava for defamation and wants the series to turn over a chunk of the profits, and other damages.
We’ve reached out to Netflix and Ava … so far, no word back yet.
Article via TMZ