http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/birth-a-nation-director-nate-920043
'Birth of a Nation' Director Nate Parker's College Rape Accuser Is Dead
1:36 PM PDT 8/16/2016 by Scott Johnson
"She was tormented" — New details emerge about the life and death of the young woman who accused the star and director of the Oscar contender of sexual assault.
The woman at the center of the sexual assault case shadowing The Birth of a Nation director-writer-star Nate Parker is dead, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
While THR won’t reveal her name because she was the victim of an alleged rape, records indicate that a woman whose name, age, physical location and other details that match the accuser’s in the 1999 sexual assault incident at Penn State died on April 15, 2012. She was 30 years old. Publicly available legal documents and numerous news reports and social media postings have shown that the accuser tried repeatedly to commit suicide in the weeks and months following her accusation against Parker and his friend and Birth of a Nation collaborator Jean Celestin, and her eventual withdrawal from Penn State.
THR has been unable to confirm the accuser’s cause of death. Fox Searchlight, which is releasing the film Oct. 7, declined to comment.
“She was tormented,” says S. Daniel Carter, who worked as a campus sexual assault advocate for a non-profit group called Security on Campus at the time of the alleged assault. "It was the constant contact and fear of seeing her assailants on campus. This was long before any real guidance on sexual assault came out.”
The original case stems from an August 1999 incident involving the accuser and two Penn State wrestlers at the time, Parker and Celestin (who has a co-story credit on Birth of a Nation). According to court records, the trio wound up at Parker’s off-campus apartment where, the accuser later said, she was sexually assaulted while unconscious. The woman waited a few weeks and then reported the assault to local police, according to court records. Parker and Celestin were eventually arrested, charged with sexual assault and the case went to trial.
The case has attracted renewed attention since Birth of a Nation’s breakout success at the Sundance Film Festival and its acquisition by Fox Searchlight for $17 million. The film is a serious Oscar contender and Parker spoke out on Friday to the industry blog Deadline about the accusations.
Parker, who admitted that he and the woman had engaged in consensual sex prior to that night, eventually was acquitted. Celestin was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail, but the conviction was later overturned on appeal based on the argument that he had ineffective representation. A retrial did not go forward because the woman declined to testify. She later agreed to a $17,000 settlement with Penn State.
“We simply will not comment on this or any case with an anonymous complainant,” says Tara Murtha, a spokesperson for the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia, which represented the woman in her suit against Parker and Celestin.
According to a briefing filed by the accuser’s attorney, Parker and Celestin began harassing the woman, referred to as Jane Doe in certain court documents, in the days and weeks after she reported the alleged rape to police. “Parker and Celestin began an organized campaign to harass Jane Doe and make her fear for her safety,” wrote her attorneys, “Jane Doe was harassed on campus and was no longer able to eat or socialize in public areas.”
According to this legal brief, Parker showed up outside her dormitory or buildings where she had classes, “hurled sexual epithets” at her when she walked around campus, and made harassing phone calls to her room.
A few weeks later, on November 17, 1999, she tried to commit suicide for the first time, according to court docments. Six days later, she tried again. The next month she stopped attending classes and in January she withdrew altogether.
According to her attorney’s legal brief, she returned a couple of months later, only to find that the harassment was continuing. The university “failed to take any steps to address the harassment,” her attorney’s wrote. In May, her apartment was broken into and legal filings relating to her case were disturbed.
“Our primary objective was to provide some measure of peace of mind for the survivor,” says Carter, who had not stayed in touch with the woman and was unaware that she had passed away.
'Birth of a Nation' Director Nate Parker's College Rape Accuser Is Dead
1:36 PM PDT 8/16/2016 by Scott Johnson
"She was tormented" — New details emerge about the life and death of the young woman who accused the star and director of the Oscar contender of sexual assault.
The woman at the center of the sexual assault case shadowing The Birth of a Nation director-writer-star Nate Parker is dead, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
While THR won’t reveal her name because she was the victim of an alleged rape, records indicate that a woman whose name, age, physical location and other details that match the accuser’s in the 1999 sexual assault incident at Penn State died on April 15, 2012. She was 30 years old. Publicly available legal documents and numerous news reports and social media postings have shown that the accuser tried repeatedly to commit suicide in the weeks and months following her accusation against Parker and his friend and Birth of a Nation collaborator Jean Celestin, and her eventual withdrawal from Penn State.
THR has been unable to confirm the accuser’s cause of death. Fox Searchlight, which is releasing the film Oct. 7, declined to comment.
“She was tormented,” says S. Daniel Carter, who worked as a campus sexual assault advocate for a non-profit group called Security on Campus at the time of the alleged assault. "It was the constant contact and fear of seeing her assailants on campus. This was long before any real guidance on sexual assault came out.”
The original case stems from an August 1999 incident involving the accuser and two Penn State wrestlers at the time, Parker and Celestin (who has a co-story credit on Birth of a Nation). According to court records, the trio wound up at Parker’s off-campus apartment where, the accuser later said, she was sexually assaulted while unconscious. The woman waited a few weeks and then reported the assault to local police, according to court records. Parker and Celestin were eventually arrested, charged with sexual assault and the case went to trial.
The case has attracted renewed attention since Birth of a Nation’s breakout success at the Sundance Film Festival and its acquisition by Fox Searchlight for $17 million. The film is a serious Oscar contender and Parker spoke out on Friday to the industry blog Deadline about the accusations.
Parker, who admitted that he and the woman had engaged in consensual sex prior to that night, eventually was acquitted. Celestin was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail, but the conviction was later overturned on appeal based on the argument that he had ineffective representation. A retrial did not go forward because the woman declined to testify. She later agreed to a $17,000 settlement with Penn State.
“We simply will not comment on this or any case with an anonymous complainant,” says Tara Murtha, a spokesperson for the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia, which represented the woman in her suit against Parker and Celestin.
According to a briefing filed by the accuser’s attorney, Parker and Celestin began harassing the woman, referred to as Jane Doe in certain court documents, in the days and weeks after she reported the alleged rape to police. “Parker and Celestin began an organized campaign to harass Jane Doe and make her fear for her safety,” wrote her attorneys, “Jane Doe was harassed on campus and was no longer able to eat or socialize in public areas.”
According to this legal brief, Parker showed up outside her dormitory or buildings where she had classes, “hurled sexual epithets” at her when she walked around campus, and made harassing phone calls to her room.
A few weeks later, on November 17, 1999, she tried to commit suicide for the first time, according to court docments. Six days later, she tried again. The next month she stopped attending classes and in January she withdrew altogether.
According to her attorney’s legal brief, she returned a couple of months later, only to find that the harassment was continuing. The university “failed to take any steps to address the harassment,” her attorney’s wrote. In May, her apartment was broken into and legal filings relating to her case were disturbed.
“Our primary objective was to provide some measure of peace of mind for the survivor,” says Carter, who had not stayed in touch with the woman and was unaware that she had passed away.
