Just days before Netflix and the former prosecutor of the unjustly imprisoned Central Park 5 were set to go to trial in New York over Ava DuVernay’s Emmy winning When They See Us, the whole four- year long legal battle is over.
“The parties announce that they have resolved this lawsuit,” said the streamer, DuVernay, writer Attica Locke and ex-Assistant District Attorney Linda Fairstein in a joint statement today as documents are being filed right now in court to end the matter. “Netflix will donate $1 million to the Innocence Project. Ms. Fairstein will not receive any money as part of this settlement.”
The trial was scheduled to start on June 10
Along with no compensation, Fairstein leaves the matter without the usual confidentially agreement and without any admission of fault on the defendants’ part, I hear. In a move that borders on ironic were it not so consequential, Netflix’s seven-figure donation to the 1992 founded Innocence Project puts resources at the disposal of the very people that the likes of Fairstein sought to imprison.
First suing Netflix and DuVernay for defamation in March 2020, Fairstein’s case came a fairly quick conclusion in the past few weeks. Representatives for the DA offices ex-sex crimes unit chief, who was played by Felicity Huffman in the four-part 2019 miniseries, reached out to the streamer seeking a significant payout, which Netflix refused, I hear. Confidentiality terms were put on the table, but also soon cast aside too. In the end, Fairstein essentially walked away with nothing except avoid her day in court.
Back in 2020, Fairstein claimed that WTSU portrayed her as a “racist, unethical villain who is determined to jail innocent children of color at any cost.” Seeking unspecified damages, Fairstein wanted an apology, a disclaimer on the miniseries and the removal of the particular scenes she claimed were not accurate. Dumped by ICM Partners around the time WTSU came out in mid-2019, Fairstein also claimed in her complaint that her post-prosecution career and reputation has been stained by the depiction in the DuVernay and Locke penned show.