Letter To Jennifer Allen Regarding False And Defamatory Statements

Not sure that it's appropriate for you to be commenting without a clear disclaimer that you're a writer for Techcrunch. Conflict of interest perhaps?

Your profile says: 'writer, nbc news & techcrunch'.

Maybe he doesn't fear a criminal trial, he fears his reputation being lost.

So clearly they think there will be no trial, so they're slinging mud... just to rub it in?

Someone accused him of being a rapist. What should he do, buy a CNN spot hailing the accusations?

> I'm not sure any of this is "damning" really.

How about the part where he was in another state on the night she says he raped her?

Or the part where she left a comment on Gawker stating that he has been previously charged with rape and went to trial but got off because he knew the judge

Or the part where she deleted evidence on Facebook?

Or the part where she told Gawker that she hadn't been in contact with him since the rape but he shows a large number of messages in a pattern of obsession

Or the part where every other person who is familiar with the two of them denies even seeing a hint of abuse

Or the part where she has previously made a false accusation, of being pregnant, in order to get him to respond to her

Actually, did you read the post? This is as damming as you can get when defending yourself from a false rape accusation.

I can't imagine what else somebody in that situation could do. He is lucky he was able to track down all this information online, otherwise we could have seen an innocent man convicted.

This woman is unreliable. She also accused Arrington of hacking into Robert Scoble's Facebook account and posting as him to defend Arrington. We should have seen through this at that point, that it had to come to this is an indictment of our culture and the willingness of a few to take advantage of an unstable woman to promote their own self interest.

While you're correct in the sense that not all rapes end up with the victim and the perpetrator despising each other (many are between two people with an existing relationship, and he may have taken advantage of a situation they were in regardless of previously consented-to encounters), I think uid really hit the nail on the head; she's really going all in on this for someone that has so many allegations, but decided to speak to social media and Gawker before the authorities (ignoring the fact that she waited a year to do so, because in the off-chance that her claims are valid, these actions can damage/guilt someone into not speaking up until much later, if ever).

She's clearly mentally distraught over something, whether or not it actually relates to Arrington or if she's throwing him under the bus in some strange attempt to get/misdirect attention. It's unfortunate because these incidences of falsified rape claims are often leveraged by those that forget that these are the loud minority. I'm really hoping that's not the case, but even in a situation where she was not okay with his actions one night, she shouldn't have been sending him provocative photos the very next (I hope this isn't seen as victim-blaming on my part, since every situation is different and there's always the potential for Stockholm Syndrome-esque effects in these situations, I just don't think this is one of those).

The rest of her communications with him are clearly using him for who he is, and then quickly turn into spiteful posts when she realizes that she can't guilt him with sexy photos to invest in her and introduce her to others in the industry. Instead of informing him of being pregnant, she waits until the day she's "scheduled" to have an abortion to guilt him over it. Months later, when Arrington later asks if she wants to talk about it, she throws it in his face that she's "Facebook official" with someone "if that's what you mean", but is willing to meet up with him "as soon as possible" "near his offices" anyway (maybe in hopes someone would see them together).

On Scoble's status, she races to at the opportunity to insult another woman for being Arrington's new girlfriend (she isn't), drinking his "Kool-aid" and (if her claims turn out to be invalid) ironically accuses her of doing a disservice to victims of rape and abuse.

TL;DR, even if there's something remotely here for her to stand on, she needs some serious help. As such, I would absolutely call this evidence "damning" to the innocence/ignorance she's trying to portray.

I left work before I realized I left out the part about truth being Ms. Allen's burden because it is her defense to defamation. (In US law, once the plaintiff has made a prima facie showing of their case, the burden shifts back to the defendant to prove their defense.)

Common elements of defamation in US law: 1) a false statement purporting to be fact concerning another person or entity; 2) publication or communication of that statement to a third person; 3) fault on the part of the person making the statement amounting to intent or at least negligence; and 4) some harm caused to the person or entity who is the subject of the statement.

Mr. Arrington has made a prima facie showing of the elements of defamation. (This doesn't mean that he's proven his case, since that is a factual determination by a judge or jury. It simply means that he appears to have shown sufficient evidence of each element that the factfinder could find for him.) I leave it to you to read the massive of wall of text to see how each element is met.

Truth is a defense to defamation, under American law. Thus, it is now Ms. Allen's job to prove the truth of the allegedly defamatory statements. In this regard, the photo is a significant obstacle to overcome in showing the truth of her statements, if, as suggested, she was several hundred miles away from the plaintiff at the time of the alleged incident.

Don't forget the issue of "false light". The facts appear to speak for themselves, but even a truthful claim is actionable if it casts the plaintiff in a false light that results in reputation damage or public ridicule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_light