Birth of a Nation (2016)

Nate Parker’s Rape Accuser Committed Suicide in 2012, Her Brother Speaks Out

The woman who accused “The Birth of a Nation” director and star Nate Parker of raping her while they were both Penn State students died in 2012 at age 30, according to family members and public records.

Her older brother told Variety that she committed suicide and 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.”

“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.

“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.

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.”

Asked if the movie should be released, he responded: “I think that’s up to the people,” Johnny said. “I don’t think a rapist should be celebrated. It’s really a cultural decision we’re making as a society to go to the theater and speak with our dollars and reward a sexual predator.”

Johnny said that the family has tried to move on from this tragedy. “It’s hard,” he said. “Seeing my sister’s life slowly crumble while these men are by all accounts relatively successful and thriving.”

“It’s been 17 years,” he added. “We certainly as a family forgive them. I don’t know that [the victim] would forgive them. I don’t think that she would.”

‘The Birth of a Nation’ Star Nate Parker Addresses College Rape Trial

When Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” premiered at Sundance in January, scoring a $17.5 million sale from Fox Searchlight — the biggest in the festival’s history — its director-writer-star was heralded as promising new voice in film.

But a rape trial from his past now threatens to cast a shadow over the release of the movie and its Oscar campaign. In 1999, as a student and wrestler at Penn State University, Parker and his roommate Jean Celestin — who went on to co-write the story for “The Birth of a Nation”— were charged with raping a 18-year-old female student in their apartment after a night of drinking.

In a two-hour interview with Variety on Wednesday, Parker was asked to address the circumstances behind the trial.

“Seventeen years ago, I experienced a very painful moment in my life,” Parker told Variety. “It resulted in it being litigated. I was cleared of it. That’s that. Seventeen years later, I’m a filmmaker. I have a family. I have five beautiful daughters. I have a lovely wife. I get it. The reality is” — he took a long silence — “I can’t relive 17 years ago. All I can do is be the best man I can be now.”

At the time, Parker admitted he had sex but claimed it was consensual. The woman said that she was unconscious, and did not consent to having sex with Parker or Celestin. She also claimed that she was stalked and harassed by Parker and Celestin after she reported the incident to the police.

Parker was suspended from the wrestling team, and later transferred to a different college in Oklahoma. In a 2001 trial, he was acquitted, based on testimony that he had previously had consensual sexual relations with his accuser. But his roommate was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison. Celestin appealed the verdict, and a second trial in 2005 was thrown out due to the victim not wanting to testify again. (She sued the university and was awarded a $17,500 settlement out of court.)

The case has now resurfaced, because of the attention around “The Birth of a Nation.” Celestin is credited with co-writing the story about the 1831 slave revolt led by Nat Turner, which speaks to current racial tensions in America (as well as within the Academy after two consecutive years of #OscarsSoWhite). But the details that have emerged from Parker’s past could end up deflecting the conversation in another direction.

The specifics of the trial are likely to be re-investigated and scrutinized as Parker enters into the spotlight, and begins doing months of press. “My life will be examined and put under the microscope in ways that it never has,” Parker said, pointing to individuals on Twitter who criticized him for having a white wife. “There are numerous things that are surfacing,” he said. “But I’ve always been an open book. I’m an advocate of justice. I’m an older man. I’ve matured a lot. I’ve had many obstacles in my life. I grew up very poor. My father passed away. There are so many things that happened. At the same time, I am the man that I am. I am open to the scrutiny. I will never hide anything from my past.”

Parker, who brought his 6-year-old daughter to the Variety interview, declined to speak about the specifics of the case. “Look at it through the context of 17 years,” he said. “It was a very painful for everyone who went through it. What I learned through 17 years of growth and having children and having a wife and building a family is that we have to fight for what’s right. We have to lead in love.”

On the day after his interview with Variety, Parker arranged to speak with Deadline for a story about the case. In an email, Celestin told the site: “This was something that I experienced as a college student 17 years ago and was fully exonerated of,” he said. “I have since moved on and been focusing on my family and writing career.”

Fox Searchlight issued a statement: “Fox Searchlight is aware of the incident that occurred while Nate Parker was at Penn State. We also know that he was found innocent and cleared of all charges. We stand behind Nate and are proud to help bring this important and powerful story to the screen.”

Fox Searchlight, Nate Parker Confront Old Sex Case That Could Tarnish ‘The Birth Of A Nation’

Parker was acquitted in 2001 of raping a woman in his apartment while a wrestler at Penn State; Celestin was initially convicted of sexual assault but the conviction was later set aside, and a planned re-trial was dropped as witnesses became unavailable. The case caused heated battles on the Penn State campus, where some black supporters said Parker and Celestin were victims of false charges and treated poorly by the administration, while women’s advocates accused the university of failing to protect the alleged victim. In a 2002 complaint filed in the United States Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Women’s Law Project represented the woman in a “Jane Doe” suit against the university. It ultimately was settled for a small cash payment and a promise to review sexual harassment practices at the school, which later suffered massive humiliation when a football coach, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with molesting eight boys between 1994-2000.

“I was sure it would come up,” Parker said. “It is there, on my Wikipedia page, the Virginia Pilot... I stand here, a 36-year-old man, 17 years removed from one of the most painful … [he wells up at the memory] moments in my life. And I can imagine it was painful, for everyone. I was cleared of everything, of all charges. I’ve done a lot of living, and raised a lot of children. I’ve got five daughters and a lovely wife. My mom lives here with me; I brought her here. I’ve got four younger sisters.”

Parker made clear that the case does not define his attitude toward women. “Women have been such an important part of my life. I try, every day, to be a better father to my daughters, and a better husband,” he said. More, Parker acknowledged and applauded a growing intolerance for sexual violence: “The reality is, this is a serious issue, a very serious issue, and the fact that there is a dialogue going on right now around the country is paramount. It is critical. The fact we are making moves and taking action to protect women on campuses and off campuses, and educating men and persecuting them when things come up. … I want women to stand up, to speak out when they feel violated, in every degree, as I prepare to take my own daughter to college.”

But Parker has no plans to rehash the episode as he introduces the film, and continues his career. “I will not relive that period of my life every time I go under the microscope,” he said. “What do I do? When you have a certain level of success, when things start to work, things go under the microscope and become bigger and bigger things. I can’t control people; I can’t control the way people feel. What I can do is be the most honorable man I can be. Live my life with the most integrity that I can, stand against injustice everywhere I see it, lead charges against injustice against people of color, against the LGBT community. That’s me. The black community is my community, the LGBT community too, and the female community. That is my community. That me, it’s who I am. When I made this film, I said, ‘If you’ve got injustice, this is your film. And I’m coming.’ That is the legacy I want to leave behind. I can’t change anything. You move forward, and every moment you’re alive, you’re living in the moment. I continue to fight for what’s important to me and I will, no matter how deeply I go under this microscope, no matter how bright the spotlight, I will fight against injustice in everything I do. And I will raise children and try to leave a legacy that points to that desire to see the changes happen that I’ve fought for.”

In an email on Friday, Celestin said: “This was something that I experienced as a college student 17 years ago and was fully exonerated of. I have since moved on and been focusing on my family and writing career. I have several exciting book and film projects that I am working on and that I am looking forward to.” Celestin said he joined Parker in co-creating The Birth of a Nation in order to present Nat Turner in what they see as his proper historical context. “Nat was a hero buried in the graveyard of fear and distortion,” Celestin said.

For its part, Fox Searchlight, the prestige distributor that most recently steered Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave and Birdman to Best Picture wins, is standing behind Parker. “Searchlight is aware of the incident that occurred while Nate Parker was at Penn State,” Searchlight said in a statement. “We also know that he was found innocent and cleared of all charges. We stand behind Nate and are proud to help bring this important and powerful story to the screen.”

The encounter and its long aftermath began on August 21, 1999, when the female college freshman — according to a report she filed nearly two months later — went to an apartment shared by Parker and Celestin after drinking heavily (atop a dose of Prozac), and, as all three of them ultimately acknowledged, had sex with both men.

The woman was named in trial records but generally was not identified by name in media reports, and Deadline will not name her here. Celestin and Parker were tried together; but most records of Celestin’s subsequent legal fight are not publicly available, a representative of the Centre County court system said.

At trial, the woman testified she was intoxicated, unconscious through much of the encounter and upset to find she had experienced unwanted sex with Parker — though she acknowledged having willingly engaged in oral sex with him during an encounter the day before. More, she said she was shocked on becoming briefly conscious to find in her mouth the penis of another man, who was later identified as Celestin.

In a phone call taped without the permission of Parker or his roommate, the woman falsely claimed to be pregnant, in what she said was an attempt to get him to identify the third sexual partner in the room that night. The police later monitored a second call during which both Parker and Celestin generally admitted the sexual encounter but insisted it was consensual.

“I’m not try, trying to be mean, but, I felt like you put yourself in that situation, you know what I mean?” said Parker. “I really felt like I didn’t do anything wrong.”

At trial, a third man, Tamerlane Kangas, testified that Parker waved him and Celestin to join him when they spied Parker and the woman having sex in the bedroom. While Celestin accepted the invitation, Kangas declined, and left the apartment. He was not charged with any crime. “I didn’t believe that four people at one time was — you know, it didn’t seem right,” he testified.

Both Celestin and Parker said in their statements that the woman was conscious and willing. Celestin added that she “she pulled me into her mouth and used both her hand and her mouth to stroke my penis.”

With his acquittal on October 5, 2001, Parker was legally in the clear. Celestin was acquitted of the rape charge but convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to between six and 12 months in jail by Judge Thomas Kistler. The Superior Court later found the sentence too lenient under Pennsylvania guidelines and increased it to between two and four years. But Celestin prevailed in an appeal and never faced re-trial.