Featured Image Credit: Netflix/Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images
Topics: Netflix, Film, Louis Theroux
Anish Vij
Topics: Netflix, Film, Louis Theroux
Louis Theroux's new true crime documentary is equally terrifying as it is mind-blowing.
The film follows the controversial relationship between a white, abled professor and a nonverbal Black man with cerebral palsy.
Professor Anna Stubblefield crossed paths with New Jersey man Derrick Johnson in 2009 through his brother - Rutgers University PhD student John Johnson.
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He took the lecturer's philosophy and disability studies class and approached Stubblefield to learn more about facilitated communication (FC), an assisted typing technique where someone helps to physically support a person’s hand or arm as they point to letters on a page or keyboard to spell out words.
After later having a chat with Derrick's mother, Daisy, the married ethics professor offered to help Derrick herself.
Derrick suffered multiple seizures as an infant and was subsequently diagnosed with cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus.
In the process of helping Derrick progress with FC, Stubblefield ended up having 'an affair' with him and planned to leave her husband.
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Meanwhile, Daisy said her son - who was 28 at the time - didn't have the capacity to engage in physical or emotional intimacy.
What happened after that is all covered in Nick August-Perna's Netflix US documentary Tell Them You Love Me. Take a look at the trailer below:
Derrick's mother argued that the keyboard he used to communicate couldn't be operated without her manipulating his hands.
The American Speech-Hearing Association also denied any evidence of FC's validity.
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They said it is 'a discredited technique that should not be used'.
Eventually, Stubblefield was tried in court in 2015, and was found guilty on two counts of first degree aggravated sexual assault.
Amid her initial sentence to 12 years behind bars, her appeal against the conviction was granted and it revoked in 2017 due to a technicality.
Her plea deal meant that she got a lesser charge and only served two years in jail.
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The former professor was released from prison in 2017 and hasn't seen or spoken to Derrick since 2011.
According to reports, she has an unspecified part-time job from home, while staying clear of the public eye.
Derrick still lives with his mother and brother.
On the true crime doc, executive producer Theroux said: "I think the other culprit is the vanity of presuming we know what is best for someone.
"Disabled people who are nonverbal or who struggle to speak [are] by definition more vulnerable to misinterpretation, which raises the stakes and makes it all potentially catastrophic."
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In the UK, Tell Them You Love Me is available to watch on Sky and NOW.