*The older brother of the woman who accused “The Birth of a Nation” director and star Nate Parker of raping her while they were students at Penn State has given an interview to Variety about her suicide in 2012 at age 30.
Her older brother revealed that she overdosed on sleeping pills. “She became detached from reality,” the woman’s brother Johnny told Variety, asking not to use his last name to honor his sister’s wishes to remain anonymous. “The progression was very quick and she took her life.”
As previously reported, Parker gave interviews last week to Variety and Deadline about the rape charge and his subsequent acquittal in a 2001 trial, but questions about the case persist.
“He may have litigated out of any kind of situation,” Johnny said. “My position is he got off on a technicality.” Other family members reached by Variety declined to publicly comment.
Via Variety:
There’s no evidence that the woman’s death was directly linked to the trial. In court, she testified that she had attempted to kill herself twice after the incident. Her brother said that she suffered from depression after the reported rape. Her death certificate, obtained by Variety, stated that she suffered from “major depressive disorder with psychotic features, PTSD due to physical and sexual abuse, polysubstance abuse….”
“If I were to look back at her very short life and point to one moment where I think she changed as a person, it was obviously that point,” Johnny told Variety. He said that prior to entering college, his sister was an outgoing, popular girl who loved animals and school. He envisioned a career in marketing or media for her. “The trial was pretty tough for her,” he said.
In 1999, Parker, a student and wrestler at Penn State, and his roommate Jean Celestin (the co-writer of “The Birth of a Nation”) were charged with raping the 18-year old female in their apartment after a night of drinking. The woman claimed she was unconscious at the time, while Parker and Celestin maintained that the encounter was consensual. She later said that she was stalked and harassed by Parker and Celestin after she reported the incident. “She was afraid for her life,” her brother said. Both men were suspended from the wrestling team, and Parker transferred to a different college in Oklahoma.
A jury acquitted Parker of the charges, in part because of testimony that he had consensual sex with the victim prior to the incident. Celestin was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to six months of prison. Celestin appealed the verdict and was granted a new trial in 2005, but the case never made it back to court after the victim decided not to testify again.
The brother believes that if the trial had been held today, there would have been a different verdict. “I think by today’s legal standards, a lot has changed with regards to universities and the laws in sexual assault,” he said. “I feel certain if this were to happen in 2016, the outcome would be different than it was. Courts are a lot stricter about this kind of things. You don’t touch someone who is so intoxicated–period.”
After the trial, the victim left college before graduating, and received a settlement from Penn State of $17,500. “She was trying to find happiness,” Johnny said. “She moved around frequently and tried to hold a job. She had a boyfriend. She gave birth to a young boy. That brought her a good bit of happiness. I think the ghosts continued to haunt her.”
Continue reading at Variety.
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