Who Is Linda Fairstein? Central Park 5 Prosecutor Sues Ava DuVernay And Netflix

Linda Fairstein says she’s not who she was portrayed to be in Ava DuVernay’s “When They See Us.” Fairstein is widely known and praised for her work as a prosecutor and one of the first leaders of the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit. As the New York Times reports, she has also established herself as a crime novelist and was even the inspiration for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

However, Fairstein claims that DuVeray defamed her with the way she scripted her role, which was played by Felicity Huffman, in the Central Park Five’s case. Therefore, the former prosecutor filed a federal lawsuit against the director, her co-writer Attica Locke, and Netflix, TMZ reports.

Fairstein claims it made her look like a "racist, unethical villain who is determined to jail innocent children of color at any cost."

The series focuses on how the legal system wrongly convicted five minority teens (Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, and Yusef Salaam) for the rape of a caucasian female jogger. The individuals of the Central Park Five were exonerated in 2002.

According to the lawsuit, Fairstein disputes almost every way DuVeray portrayed her role in the case. As TMZ reports, this includes “interrogating unaccompanied minors, calling for a roundup of ‘young black’ thugs, manipulating the timeline to pin the jogger's rape on the Central Park Five, referring to people of color as animals, directing NYPD detectives to coerce confessions, and suppressing DNA evidence.”

Fairstein is essentially claiming that the whole basis of the work is false. She even reports having given DuVeray a warning about falsely portraying her in the show ahead of its May 2019 release. However, she alleges the writer told her not to dispute the work before she’d seen it.

Her attorney Andrew Miltenberg spoke with Variety in an attempt to clarify Fairstein's role in the case.

“Most glaringly, the film series falsely portrays Ms. Fairstein as in charge of the investigation and prosecution of the case against The Five, including the development of the prosecution’s theory of the case. In truth, and as detailed in the lawsuit, Ms. Fairstein was responsible for neither aspect of the case,” Miltenberg said. “Ms. Fairstein’s legal action is not intended to re-litigate the guilt or innocence of The Five in the attacks on Ms. Meili or the other victims assaulted in Central Park that night.”

Since the show's release, the “Blood Oath” author claims it has negatively impacted her writing career and forced her to quit her positions for several non-profit organization boards. Furthermore, she reports that her publisher and agents dropped her as a result of the series.

However, a Netflix representative says that Fairstein’s lawsuit is of no value.

"Linda Fairstein's frivolous lawsuit is without merit,” the spokesperson told TMZ. “We intend to vigorously defend 'When They See Us' and Ava DuVernay and Attica Locke, the incredible team behind the series."

John E. Reid and Associates, a police interrogation firm, also filed a lawsuit against Netflix in October 2019 for falsely portraying its "Reid Technique" used to interrogate suspects.

“When They See Us” is still available to stream on Netflix.