Late to the game, but has anyone pointed out … oh never mind, of course somebody has.
Well, since there is no proof of what Allen’s been accused of, I’d have to say he is the victim here. Have you ever been falsely accused of a crime? I have. It’s not fun. Personally, I think the laws should be changed to make consequences for false accusation severe and quick.
Note: Somewhere earlier in this thread someone referred to someone as their (referring to Allen and his girl-friend) adopted child. That’s incorrect. Allen did not adopt the child.
Oh, that’s a steaming pile of rubbish. Being a mom (or a dad, for that matter) does not give one carte blanche for behavior.
I don’t know what the earlier poster was referring to, but your reference to “the child” is potentially confusing.
There are two adopted children relevant to these discussions. Soon-Yi Previn (current spouse to Woody Allen) was not Allen’s adopted child. Dylan Farrow (the ostensible abuse victim) was.
I was referring to the one, as the other poster was, Allen did not adopt.
Exactly. Has Mia never said a bad thing about Woody?
OK, but you didn’t reference any specific post - only “somewhere earlier in this thread someone …” - and your own post was about Dylan Farrow.
And Soon Yi was older than Mia was when Mia became involved with Frank Sinatra.
“As a prosecutor I really can’t comment on the substance of the statement of this now young woman [Dylan Farrow]. As a father of a child not too much older than this young woman, I can only say I hope she finds some peace and solace in the way she’s expressing herself,” former Connecticut State’s Attorney Frank Maco said. “I hope she had access to my written statement of decision. My statement is as valid today as it was 20 years ago.”
In 1993, Maco – who’s since retired – told reporters he believed there was probable cause to arrest Allen. But he said he decided not to press charges, with Mia Farrow’s support, "rather than exposing the child to possible harm." http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/01/showbiz/dylan-farrow-open-letter/index.html
Recall that at the time, the purpose of this investigation was not to have Allen charged with a crime, but to prevent him from unfettered access to her children, which he had sued her for.
Fact: One need not have suffered injuries for sexual molestation to have occurred. Diddling doesn’t leave marks. The lack of physical evidence is not a 100 percent indicator of lack of a sexual assault having taken place.
Dylan recounts more than that single incident — in fact she recounts numerous incidents, none of which would leave behind physical evidence: his face in her naked lap, and putting her in bed under the sheets with him to name just two. She instinctively understood that his behavior was inappropriate and creepy to the point that she took to hiding from him.
Nanny/schmanny. Was she an eye witness? Then her word is pretty much meaningless. She cannot have been in that child’s presence every moment Allen was with her. And nannies are as easily manipulated as anyone else, including children. “If I needed you to say that my client was never alone with Dylan Farrow, would you be willing to testify to that?” Who knows why she may have felt compelled to do so.
There are arguments to be made that Mia coached Dylan, and arguments that Dylan is being truthful. There are also arguments that prosecutors are often overzealous, but given that this one didn’t proceed when he actually believed there was enough evidence to have done so, gives me a bit more confidence in his word than the words of a biographer close to Allen. A biographer who, by the way, thinks it means something against Dylan’s credibility that Mia was “forced” to testify that doctors found no physical injuries on Dylan. The fact that he gives that any weight at all is telling in his bias, because it’s actually quite meaningless as evidence of anything.
Maco’s comments lead to be him being disciplined by the state. Saying such a thing publicly is a huge breach of ethics. Call it spin if you must, but he sounds to me like someone looking for his 15 minutes.
Diddling doesn’t leave marks? What?
Yes, both nannies were eyewitnesses. And both nannies worked for Farrow, not Woody.
You’re conflating two issues. There was an investigation done for the purpose of custody/visitation, as you say, but that was not anything that involved Maco. His investigation was for the purpose of possible criminal charges. When he dropped the case he made his remarks about probable cause, which was a possible violation of prosecutorial ethics, since it could have influenced the custody case. (He was brought up on disclinary charges for the remarks, but they were dropped.)
The custody/visitation court appointed the team of psychologists which cleared Allen.
The prosecutor claims he thought there was probable cause. It’s hard to imagine he actually thought so, and he likely dropped the case because there was very little chance he could have convicted Allen in the face of a report from court-appointed experts saying he was innocent.
Re the biographer, what confidence is required? Are you disputing any facts that he offers? No one is relying on his conclusions, but he offers some pertinent facts. After that you can think for yourself.
Check that. The Connecticut State Police appointed the team.
FWIW, here’s my (belated) take:
Dylan is not lying. But she appears to remember a lot of details now that she didn’t seem to remember during the pertinent investigation. To me, this implies “recovered memories” and years of coaching from mommy. Her brother Moses (who, unlike me, knows all the people involved) has come to a similar conclusion and has reconciled with Woody and Soon-Yi.
Woody is an unpleasant jerk. It wouldn’t take much to convince me that he’s a child molester, but that threshold has not been met.
Mia Farrow is a nightmare. It wouldn’t take much to convince me that she’s pretty abusive in her own way. I’m all for demonizing Woody, but do not give this awful woman an undeserved free walk.
I have friends with young children who have very different boundaries with them than my parents had with me, like family baths well into school age, sleeping in the same bed, fervid enthusiasm for nursing past infancy, etc. It doesn’t reach the legal definition of child abuse, but it makes me pretty uncomfortable. Woody and Mia both have/had pretty questionable approaches to parenting, but in wildly different directions.
I feel compelled to point out that there is no legal system that uses the standard of ‘proof beyond a shadow of a doubt’, for the very sensible reason that that is very probably a standard that could never be met.
You are, of course, correct that there are different standards of evidence for different situations. The standard for a criminal trial is ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’. For a civil trial, it is ‘by the preponderance of the evidence’. As for public opinion, it’s obviously up to each individual to select the standard of evidence they require.
Except that at the time Dylan was examined by doctors, who found no evidence of abuse.
And you think that every form of sexual abuse leaves physical evidence? There is PLENTY of inappropriate sexual contact that might have taken place that would leave no evidence whatsoever.
No, but quite a few of them do.
While Dylan has every right to privacy, the lack of details in her accounts makes it impossible for an outside to even know if it was the sort of abuse that leaves physical evidence or not.
And quite a few of them don’t, so what? So now all molesters have to do is be sure no marks are left behind?
Wasn’t Dylan saying publicly just a few years ago, that she had repressed the memories?
I think it’s pretty evident to say that getting involved with your girlfriend’s adopted daughter who is 30 years younger than yourself; it’s just wrong. Maybe legal, but unequivocally WRONG.
It seems to me that you take a case like that, built on the foundation of 'well he did SOMETHING awful, maybe he did something else even worse. A guy who’d fuck his teenager almost-stepdaughter might be capable of anything.
I do feel like Dylan has become Mia’s instrument of revenge. Maybe she was coached, maybe she confabulated it, but it just doesn’t have that ring of truth, IMO.
Same logic applied to Mia Farrow: Ronan Farrow doesn’t resemble Woody Allen in the least. Mia as much as admitted that he might have been Sinatra’s. She cheated on Allen, passed someone else’s kid off as his, what else might she be capable of? Coaching and brainwashing Dylan? Not an unbelievable assertion.
nvm