Netflix was sued over alleged defamation
The entertainment company, along with director Ava DuVernay, received a lawsuit from a company responsible for conducting police interrogations
A company responsible for conducting a controversial police interrogation technique filed a lawsuit against Netflix and director Ava DuVernay, claiming they were victims of defamation in the miniseries. So they see us.
John E. Reid and Associates developed the Reid Technique in the late 1940s and since then continued offering training materials and courses for the police. According to Variety, the company says that such method of interrogation is the most used by law enforcement agencies around the world, but critics maintain that its approach can lead to false confessions.
The technique is mentioned in the fourth episode of fiction, centered on the case of the Central Park Five. One of the characters faces the New York police detective Michael Sheehan, saying he forced the five defendants to confess, who were later exonerated.
“You took statements from them after 42 hours of questions and coercion, no food, no bathroom breaks, no parental supervision,” he said.
“I don’t even know what the Reid technique is, okay? I know what they taught me. I know what they asked me to do and I did it,” replies Sheehan.
The lawsuit claims that this dialogue gives a wrong image of the Reid Technique, since it supposedly does not imply coercion. The document also alleges that it is false to state that the technique has been “universally rejected.”
“The defendants intended to incite a reaction from the public against Reid for what happened in the case of Central Park and for the coercive interrogation tactics that are still used today,” says the lawsuit, adding that the series damaged the reputation of the company. From the company they seek a precautionary measure that prohibits Netflix from distributing the series and a return of the platform’s profits.
K. Tovar
Source: dpa
