The woman suing is identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe. According to the legal filing, Jane Doe accused venture capitalist and writer Amy Griffin of negligence, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress. Griffin's book, The Tell, was described as 'neither a genuine nor harmless memoir' in the lawsuit.
Doe filed the lawsuit about one year after Griffin's book was published last March. The memoir recounted how Griffin used MDMA for therapy and recovered memories of being raped multiple times beginning at age 12 by a middle school teacher in Amarillo, Texas. Doe claimed that two incidents described in the book were actually sexual assaults committed against her.
One alleged sexual assault in the lawsuit involved a rape at a middle school dance. Griffin wrote that the assault, inflicted by the teacher given the pseudonym Mr. Mason, happened to her while wearing a borrowed dress.
Doe alleged that she was actually the one who borrowed the dress from Griffin and was assaulted at the dance by a different teacher. Doe returned the dress with a stain left on it during the attack, per the suit. Another assault in The Tell said Griffin had been assaulted after the teacher tied her hands behind her back with a bandanna.
Doe claimed she was the victim in that encounter as well, alleging the bandanna was stuffed in her mouth. Doe alleged that she met with Griffin at the author's request at a coffee shop in California in 2019, and they allegedly talked about growing up in Amarillo. ' Doe allegedly told the producer about how she had been sexually attacked in middle school.
Doe alleged the producer stopped communicating with her after she asked for a contract. Doe believes the information she shared was later used in Griffin's memoir, per the suit. Griffin's attorney, Thomas A.
' The Tell drew significant buzz after being promoted by Oprah Winfrey through her book club show. The identity of the middle school teacher involved in the alleged assaults remains unknown.