I’m reviving this thread to say that, after having watched the first three episodes of Allen v. Farrow on HBO last night, my views on the case have flipped 180 degrees. I am now convinced Allen is guilty and molested his adopted daughter Dylan in August 1992. I urge anyone who believes that Allen is innocent to watch the four-hour series.
Before last night, like many others in this thread, I thought that Allen was probably not guilty and that Farrow had probably made up the allegations and coached Dylan because she was angry at Allen about his relationship with Soon-Yi. But the documentary makes clear that much of what I thought, and that has been argued here, is not true, or is Allen’s self-interested spin on the situation.
I will try to put down some of the most damaging facts to Allen’s claims of innocence. (This is all from memory, so although I’m trying to be as careful and precise as possible, I may make some – hopefully minor – mistakes in what follows.)
Three babysitters who were present at Farrow’s home at the time of the incident testified in the later custody trial that Allen and Dylan were missing for at least 20 minutes. One of them said that as they started searching the house for Dylan, she saw them in the TV room, Dylan seated with Allen on his knees facing her, with his head in her lap. Dylan would later tell Farrow that Allen then took her up to the attic and put his finger in her vagina.
Shortly after that, Farrow took Dylan to a doctor, who spoke with Dylan and reported the possibility of sexual abuse of a minor to the Connecticut police, as required by law.
Farrow began making video recordings of Dylan whenever she started to talk about the incident. These tapes, which were presented at the custody hearing, are probably the most damning evidence in the show, because Farrow is extremely careful not to ask leading questions, and Dylan’s answers clearly are not the result of coaching. My wife, herself a survivor of child sexual abuse, says that the tapes show a child telling the truth. In case my wife’s opinion isn’t enough for you, five independent experts the filmmakers brought in agreed.
The Yale New Haven Hospital report is highly suspect. The fact that they interviewed Dylan nine times was criticized by the experts as contrary to best practices, even 30 years ago: the ideal is to subject the child to as little reliving of the experience as possible. Much was made of the fact that the team’s contemporaneous notes were destroyed, which is also a violation of professional practice.
The hospital, instead of handing the report over to the police and the district attorney who had commissioned it, without notifying them, called a press conference to announce results that were widely reported as completely exhonorating Allen. This obviously made it much harder for the CT prosecutor to proceed.
At the same time, the New York City Child Welfare Agency was conducting its own investigation (because Dylan was a resident of NY), and caseworker who interviewed her concluded that there was evidence to support a criminal charge against Allen. He was pressured to change his report, which he refused to do, and despite having previously been given official awards and recognition, was fired for insubordination. The documentary suggests that Mayor David Dinkins, or members of his administration, were responsible for quashing the investigation, because Allen’s movies bring millions of dollars to New York. The caseworker sued and was restored to his job, but his supervisor quit within a year, disgusted at the special treatment that someone like Allen could get.
The filmmakers reveal that in looking through dozens of boxes of files in the course of their three-year investigation, they found contemporaneous notes from the NY caseworker (that weren’t destroyed!) about a conversation he had had with a member of the Yale New Haven team who admitted to him that she thought that Allen had molested Dylan.
Allen sued Farrow to gain full custody of Moses, Dylan and Satchel (now known as Ronan), alleging she was an unfit mother. The judge denied his request, said there was no evidence that she had coached Dylan, called Allen’s behavior toward Dylan “grossly inappropriate,” said the case was “frivolous,” and awarded Farrow $1 million to cover her legal fees.
As for why Moses is defending Allen now, the show gives some hints about that, too. Moses had no father figure in his life before Allen, and the two bonded very closely. After the revelation of Allen’s relationship with Soon-Yi, Moses wrote Allen a letter (shown in the show) saying he was no longer his father, but he later recanted and they reconciled. It is not surprising that Soon-Yi and Moses are the only ones saying Farrow was abusive.
After reading a review of the series that said it took Farrow’s side, was not inclined to watch it, since I thought the evidence in Allen’s favor was pretty strong. (I will admit that I hadn’t done a lot of my own research, but relied on things I had read here and other second-hand reports.) But my wife wanted to see it, and as we watched I increasingly realized that the facts that had previously swayed me were either not as persuasive as I had thought (e.g., the Yale New Haven report) or were spin that Allen had cleverly put out to deflect blame from himself: the custody battle that flipped the charges of child abuse back on Farrow and created the “hysterical woman scorned” narrative.
There is much more in the series (and I haven’t even seen the final episode yet) that I could mention, but this post is already too long. I urge those here who have defended Allen (I was one of you until last night!) to watch it and make up your own minds.
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