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Woody Allen Responds To Molestation Accusations

Woody Allen asked last week to be allowed to respond to adopted daughter Dylan Farrow’s claims that he molested her in a public forum, and on Friday the New York Times published an op-ed piece c...
Woody Allen Responds To Molestation Accusations
Written by Amanda Crum
  • Woody Allen asked last week to be allowed to respond to adopted daughter Dylan Farrow’s claims that he molested her in a public forum, and on Friday the New York Times published an op-ed piece containing his defense, plus accusations that his ex, Mia Farrow, coached Dylan to accuse Allen of sexual abuse.

    Dylan Farrow’s story hasn’t changed over the years, from the time the criminal investigation began in 1992 up until January of this year, when she spoke up on the matter again after her brother, Ronan, mentioned it on Twitter the night of the Golden Globe Awards. Ronan Farrow was none too pleased that Allen was given the Cecil B. Demille lifetime achievement award and immediately posted on the micro-blogging site about it.

    “Missed the Woody Allen tribute – did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” he wrote. Soon after, a media frenzy ensued.

    While Dylan Farrow says she isn’t bringing the allegations back into the spotlight to smear Allen’s name during Oscar season or to gain notoriety, Allen says he thinks there’s another reason: she’s being coached by her mother, actress Mia.

    “One must ask, did Dylan even write the letter or was it at least guided by her mother? Does the letter really benefit Dylan or does it simply advance her mother’s shabby agenda? That is to hurt me with a smear. There is even a lame attempt to do professional damage by trying to involve movie stars, which smells a lot more like Mia than Dylan,” he wrote.

    Allen still maintains his innocence and references the fact that the investigation concluded that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing; however, state prosecutor Frank S. Maco said at the time that they wouldn’t pursue the case anymore due to the toll it was taking on then-7-year old Dylan.

    “This group of impartial, experienced men and women whom the district attorney looked to for guidance as to whether to prosecute, spent months doing a meticulous investigation, interviewing everyone concerned, and checking every piece of evidence,” he wrote. “Finally they wrote their conclusion which I quote here: “It is our expert opinion that Dylan was not sexually abused by Mr. Allen. Further, we believe that Dylan’s statements on videotape and her statements to us during our evaluation do not refer to actual events that occurred to her on August 4th, 1992… In developing our opinion we considered three hypotheses to explain Dylan’s statements. First, that Dylan’s statements were true and that Mr. Allen had sexually abused her; second, that Dylan’s statements were not true but were made up by an emotionally vulnerable child who was caught up in a disturbed family and who was responding to the stresses in the family; and third, that Dylan was coached or influenced by her mother, Ms. Farrow. While we can conclude that Dylan was not sexually abused, we can not be definite about whether the second formulation by itself or the third formulation by itself is true. We believe that it is more likely that a combination of these two formulations best explains Dylan’s allegations of sexual abuse.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

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