OUT OF THE WAY

‘Central Park Five’ Prosecutor Resigns From Charity Boards Amid Backlash

Linda Fairstein said it’s “so foolish” of “to punish the charities” over her involvement in them after “When They See Us” aired.

The prosecutor in the “Central Park Five” case has resigned from three charity organization boards and one college board amid a backlash sparked by a new Netflix series about the case. The New York Post reports that Linda Fairstein stepped down from the boards of the Safe Horizon victims-services agency, God’s Love We Deliver, Joyful Heart Foundation, and Vassar College after the series When They See Us depicted her role in the convictions—and eventual exonerations—of five teens in the 1989 rape of a woman in New York’s Central Park. “I do not want to become a lightning rod to inflict damage on this organization, because of those now attacking my record of fighting for social justice for more than 45 years,” Fairstein was quoted as writing in a letter to Safe Horizon. She also told the Post she resigned due to the “mob-mentality reaction” of the series, in which she claims Felicity Huffman portrays her in an “inaccurate” manner. “Each of these organizations does great work,” she said of public calls to boycott donations to the organizations she was tied with. “It’s so foolish of the bullies to punish the charities. Totally pig-headed and stupid.”