All language subtitles for Allen.v.Farrow.S01E03.Part.3.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-TEPES

SPEAKER:
The Woody Allen archives is
boxes and boxes of material

he gives
to Princeton University.

It has old scripts, ideas.

It's just that the thing
that kept showing up

was this focus on
very young women.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

I don't know when it started
with Soon-Yi.

SPEAKER 2:
She had never dated a boy.
She never kissed a boy.

She was very innocent.

You have one job, and that is
to stand by your child

and keep her safe.

He said, "What...

What about some...
father-daughter time?

♪ ♪

(birds chirping)

(Woody Allen speaking)

(Mia Farrow speaking)

♪ ♪

Reporter 1:
This is a story of two of
the biggest stars in the world.

Reporter 2:
The father is Woody Allen,
writer, director, actor.

The mother is Mia Farrow,
his frequent costar

and the mother of his three
children, two of them adopted.

Reporter 3:
Woody and Mia have been
together for 12 years,

but never married and kept
separate residences.

♪ ♪

Reporter 4:
She reportedly has a video of
their adopted daughter Dylan

explaining how
Allen molested her.

♪ ♪

Reporter 5:
Allen denies child abuse,
but freely admits

he's in love with another
of Farrow's daughters,

21-year-old Soon-Yi.

♪ ♪

Reporter 6:
Allen said the newest
allegations are

the bizarre concoctions
of a woman scorned.

♪ ♪

Woman:
Miss Farrow's only concern

has been exclusively
the protection
of her children.

♪ ♪

Narrator:
The private lives

of Woody Allen
and the Farrow family

would become very public
in August of 1992.

A series of investigations
and lawsuits followed,

which generated
tens of thousands

of court and police documents,

most of which were
never made public

or obtained by the press.

♪ ♪

One cache of more than
60 boxes of documentation

was hidden away in
an attorney's storage room,

untouched since the '90s.

Over the course of our
three-year investigation,

we gained access
to those boxes,

along with police files
of the case,

additional evidence,

affidavits, sworn testimony,

and private audio
and video recordings.

(birds chirping)

Mia Farrow:
After the incident
in the attic,

the next day, I took
Dylan to the doctor.

She didn't really know
the pediatrician up here

in Connecticut that well,

and she sure didn't
want to talk about it.

He didn't want to pressure
her, and he said, you know,

"No problem.
Why don't you come back
tomorrow, you know?"

When we got in the car,
I said, you know,

"Did-did you wanna tell
him what you told me?

Do you feel..."

And she said, "I don't like
to talk about my privates."

And I'm like, "I get that.

"I get that.

"But, it would be helpful

"if you could tell him
because then,

we would have somebody who
could make sure you're okay."

♪ ♪

So then, the next day,
we went back,

and she did tell
the doctor what happened.

And then, we went home.

And we were all outside,

and I got a call
from the doctor.

And he said,
"I just wanted to tell you

that I've told the police."

I remember when
I took the phone call,

I made all the kids
get out of the water.

So they were like
making sand castles

and covering their
feet with sand.

And I saw a little robin
was hopping on the grass.

And I'm holding the phone,

thinking it all
looked so normal.

But nothing will ever
be normal ever again.

♪ ♪

Narrator:
Dylan's pediatrician
had submitted a report

of suspected sexual abuse,

and a series of legal actions
were initiated in two states.

In New York, the Farrows'
legal residence,

the City Child
Welfare Administration

opened an investigation.

While in Connecticut,

where the alleged
crime had occurred,

the state police opened
a criminal investigation

which was overseen
by state prosecutor

Frank Maco.

Frank Maco:
I received a call
from my office

with a complaint,

alleged sexual abuse
on one Woody Allen.

I met with the members of
the Connecticut State Police.

I said, I want to make sure
that we're not talking about

some type of
a Hollywood relationship
that's just gone bad.

Mia:
Next thing you know,

like crime squad trucks
rolling down our driveway.

They went to do, like,
do whatever they do
in the attic.

Collecting hair
and stuff like that.

♪ ♪

What I remember, um,

is that

after the attic,

things really started
changing very rapidly.

I said this thing,
and it started this...

nightmare of lawyers

and the phone ringing,
and everything changed.

Reporter:
Woody's not about
to change his ways.

He's where he is
every Monday night--

Michael's Pub
here in Manhattan.

Steve Powers is there
right now. Steve?

It was as if Woody Allen
was trying to play it cool

by playing his clarinet as
he does every Monday night

over here at Michael's Pub.

He went up on the bandstand
and joined the band

in some playing,
with a full house.

But earlier,
there was an indication

everything wasn't just fine,

when Woody left his apartment
at 74th Street and 5th Avenue.

He had no comment.

Woody, could you give
us a comment, Woody?

(indistinct)

Woody, anything about
the Bridgewater charges, Woody?

(shutters snapping)

Frank:
My office and the
Connecticut State Police,

we wanted to do our

investigation quietly,

and as effectively as possible.
Professionally as possible.

Next thing I know,
at The Plaza Hotel,

Mr. Allen calls
a news conference

and announces he's subject
of a Connecticut State Police

investigation into abuse.

♪ ♪

(coughs) Thank you for coming.

Over the years,
you all know that,
that, uh, I've been

ahem, reluctant to
speak with the press,

and have assiduously
avoided publicity.

But because of all the rumors

and innuendos and...

cruel untruths

circulating over the past week,

I feel that I have
to make a statement.

This is an unconscionable

and gruesomely
damaging manipulation

of innocent children

for vindictive
and self-serving purposes.

In the end, the one thing
I have been guilty of

is falling in love with
Ms. Farrow's adult daughter...

Priscilla Gilman:
Woody gave a press conference

where he talked about being
wildly in love with Soon-Yi.

And our jaws all dropped.

He said to Mia,
"I don't love Soon-Yi."

I heard him say this!
"This was just
a silly little fling.

I don't love her.
Not in love with her."

There's a calculated reason

why love enters the picture.

Reporter:
Have you spoken to Mia?

Priscilla:
He's trying to distract.
"This is a woman scorned.

This is an unhinged woman."

That's Woody's narrative.

He's turned it all back.

Turned it upside down
and around,

and focused on his
relationship with Soon-Yi.

And the media
ran with that story.

One day after
Woody Allen acknowledged

a love affair with the
21-year-old adopted daughter

of his long-time companion
and leading lady, Mia Farrow,

The usually very private
filmmaker went public.

Allen says he feels
no great moral dilemma

over his admitted relationship
with Soon-Yi Previn Farrow.

Reporter 1:
In a written statement,
Allen says,

"Regarding my
love for Soon-Yi,

it's real
and happily all true."

Reporter 2:
He added that
Mia Farrow was so irate

when Allen fell
in love with Farrow's

adopted college-age
daughter Soon-Yi,

that Farrow concocted
the abuse charges.

(Woody speaking)

(Mia speaking)

Reporter:
In "Time" and "Newsweek,"

Allen struck the latest blow
in this war waged

with sound bites
and spicy quotes.

Over the past week,
Allen's trial by tabloid

has captivated
the national psyche.

Rosanna Scotto:
I was a general assignment
reporter back in the '90s

when we heard that

Mia Farrow's adopted daughter

might be having an affair
with Woody Allen.

And the way he spun it
was just perfect.

You know,
don't forget Woody Allen,

at that time, had some really

high-powered people
in his court.

Elkan Abramowitz, his attorney,
big, big attorney,

and he had a very powerful
PR machine behind him.

They were doing a great job
painting Mia Farrow

as a scorned woman
who would say anything.

But we had to follow the leads,
and sometimes, it took us

to a place that
Woody Allen was not happy.

Here at the Episcopal School
on Manhattan's East Side,

sources tell us exclusively

that Woody Allen was
so obsessed with Dylan,

who was then three years old,

that parents and teachers
began talking about how Allen

would sit in the doorway,

positioned to watch
little Dylan in the classroom.

We were just one of
a few journalists

who gave the other side.

Woody immediately got
onto the cover of "Time,"

the cover of "Newsweek,"
the cover of "People,"

and Mia wasn't really speaking.

I thought to myself,

there has to be another
side to this story.

She was not giving interviews,

so I had to find
people close to her.

I spoke to André Previn,
her previous husband.

I spoke to the tutors.
I spoke to the babysitters.

One of the things that
was interesting to me

was that...

Mia didn't want these
allegations to be true

because this was completely
unraveling her entire life.

I was told by several different
people that she said,

"You know, Dylan,
we all make up stories.

"If this didn't happen,
you really need to tell me
it didn't happen.

Or maybe
you think it happened."

And she says,
"No! It happened!

And if he says
it didn't happen,
he's lying!"

So, this little girl would
never back down from the story.

I also found out
that Woody refused

to submit to the state
police's lie detector test.

♪ ♪

Frank:
The Connecticut State Police
indicated that Woody Allen

had taken a polygraph
by a private polygrapher.

I said, I'm not interested.

I want a state police
polygrapher to take it.

And he refused.

So, I did not get
what I had requested,

which was a polygraph by
the Connecticut State Police.

(Mia speaking)

(Woody speaking)

(clock ticking)

Be-- be logical about this.

I'm-I'm 57.

Isn't it illogical
that I'm going to

pick this moment in my life

to become a child molester?
It's just--

It's just incredible.
If I wanted to be
a child molester,

I had many opportunities
in the past.

Steve Kroft:
Why then would Allen's
seven-year-old daughter

tell a Connecticut
doctor otherwise?

Either she has been coached,

methodically, to, to--
(coughs)

tell this story because...

-Kroft: By Mia?
-By Mia, yeah.

♪ ♪

Mia:
Overnight almost,
there he is on everything.

On the cover
of every magazine,
on every kind of show,

saying that I had
coached Dylan

and all these things.

She's been using her
friends on both coasts

to say terrible
things about me
and to lie about me...

I didn't feel

that it was

seemly to get into

a public fight with him.

Reporter:
In a statement,
Farrow told NBC News

she wouldn't be interviewed
about Woody Allen
for this story,

and asked that
her friends not talk to us
about Allen either.

I just had to keep
my focus on the kids,

and try to keep them safe

and try to keep whatever
semblance of normal

that we could under
the circumstances.

♪ ♪

There were helicopters
flying low to take pictures,

and the kids
couldn't go anywhere.

And it was terrifying.

Dylan Farrow:
If we left the house,

they would follow us
wherever we were going.

And...

it was scary.

Reporter:
At the Farrow home
in Connecticut,

and elsewhere,
family members were rallying

to Mama Mia's side.

She's my mother,
and, um,

she's the best mother
there is.

Any statement saying that she's
unfit to be a mother or anything

is completely ridiculous.

She is a marvelous mother,
a fine woman,

and she's just got
a moral foundation

that's just unbreakable.

A moral rock somewhere,
you know,

we're all standing together,

and we're gonna fight
this thing till we win.

We didn't need help
turning against him.

I mean,
he did it to himself.

And his accusation

that my mother is
an unfit mother is absurd.

Anybody who knows
my mother knows that.

Woody appeared to have what
were unlimited resources

and hired private investigators

and people were
following us around

and going through garbage
and looking for anything

that there's a weakness here

that I can exploit to say,

"Hold on a minute.
She's not the great parent

she's asserting herself to be.
Look at this."

Priscilla:
I definitely felt like
I was followed a few times,

when I was coming from

Mia's apartment
back to my apartment,

or if I was taking
the children out.

♪ ♪

Mia:
One night, I was coming
home from some friends,

and I was being followed.

So, I didn't even go home.

I took some twists and turns,

and still, this person
was following me.

So I went all the way
into the neighboring town,

and it became really scary.

♪ ♪

I met with the members of
the Connecticut State Police,

instructed them to continue
their investigation.

I said, I want this
child evaluated.

I wanted some type of
opinion as to whether or not

my bringing her into
the criminal justice system,

putting her on the stand,
in any way,
would traumatize her,

and I want to know whether
there are any impediments

to the child's ability
to take the stand

and testify in court.

So, I suggested

the Yale Child Sexual Abuse
Clinic to do the examination.

♪ ♪

They were going to assist me

insofar as determining
whether or not

there were any impediments

as to the child's
ability to perceive,

recall, and relay.

Narrator:
The Yale-New Haven team was
lead by Dr. John Leventhal,

who, at that time,
was the director

of the Yale-New Haven Hospital
Child Sexual Abuse Clinic.

The team also included
two social workers,

Julia Hamilton
and Jennifer Sawyer.

Records show that Sawyer
and Hamilton interviewed Dylan

nine times over
a three-month period.

Dylan:
I would meet with some adults,

who would show me
an anatomically correct doll,

and asked me where
Daddy touched me.

And I would repeat the story

over and over and over again.

It was grueling,
and it was intense, and...

I hated it.

♪ ♪

Frank:
Their examination went on
for seven months.

And then I received a call

that the Yale Child Sexual
Abuse Clinic made a decision,

and I am given
the bottom-line conclusion

that the child is
unreliable, untrustworthy,

and/or that Mia Farrow

was a fabricator
of this incident.

Narrator:
The report stated there were

inconsistencies in
Dylan's statements,

and that she had,
"difficulty distinguishing

fantasy from reality."

The report also stated that
Dylan's accusations were,

"likely reinforced and
encouraged by her mother

who was enraged
with Mr. Allen."

Without notifying Frank Maco,

who had commissioned
the report,

Yale-New Haven met with both
Mia Farrow and Woody Allen,

and informed them of
the results of the report.

♪ ♪

Frank:
Next thing I know,
the Yale-New Haven team

presented the findings
to Allen,

the suspect of
the investigation,

and allowed him to
announce the results

publicly on the steps
of the hospital.

They've come
to a decision that, um...

I can say is an accurate one.

Certainly, I never,
ever abused my daughter.

There was no sexual abuse
that ever took place,

and that, um, that the--
it was either...

it was either an imagined thing
or a concocted thing.

Reporter:
What do you think it was?

Why do you call the accused
and have a press conference

on the steps of the hospital

to, quote, "clear him,"

when you don't give it

to the state attorney
to do that?

He was the one
who commissioned it.

It wasn't their
purview to do that.

Reporter:
Today's report, if it is
as Allen describes it,

seems to remove
any possibility
he'd face criminal charges.

The report also says
that the child may have
made the story up,

but the experts also allow
for the possibility
in their report

that Farrow may have coached
the child to tell this story.

In the report,
the experts recommend that
Farrow receive therapy now

for what it characterized
as her, quote, "extremely
disturbed," unquote,

relationship with
seven-year-old Dylan.

Frank:
I had to come forward
and say, wait a minute.

I find nothing indicating that
Mia Farrow is, in any way,

fabricating, controlling,

or manipulating this child.

There's nothing to show us that.

-(shutters snapping)
-Um, I-I just
wanna say that, um,

that I will always stand
by my children. That's it.

(reporter speaking)

♪ ♪

I was contacted by
Ms. Farrow's attorney

shortly after the Yale
report came out.

Ms. Farrow's lawyer was
concerned about the report,

and she asked me
if I could read it
and tell her what I thought.

I read the report
and I was horrified.

And I testified in court
about the report.

They interviewed this child
nine times.

Even in the early '90s,

nobody interviewed
a child of any age

amidst an allegation of
sexual abuse nine times.

You don't interview a child
about the same allegation

over and over and over again.

You...

interview the child

the least amount of
times as possible,

so as not to
re-traumatize the child.

♪ ♪

Dylan:
The more I was asked the same
question over and over,

the more I started to wonder,

what do they want from me?

And feeling like the more
I said the same thing, that...

it was the wrong answer.

That I was being
treated like I was...

lying.

If I change a word here,

they say I'm being
inconsistent.

If I use exactly the same...

words that I used every
other time, I was coached.

There were absolute
consistencies

in which this child
said the same thing

to the same interviewers

over the nine times
she was interviewed.

Michelle Peterson:
She's very consistent
about who touched her,

where in the house,
what part of her body,

what he touched her with.

So she's very
consistent with the core

elements of her disclosure.

She hasn't really moved away
from that in, in these,
in this report,

in all of these interviews.

♪ ♪

Dylan:
You know,
every little idiosyncrasy

that I could have had
as a seven-year-old girl

was used against me.

The fact that
I used childish descriptions.

I described a couple of

mannequin heads
as "dead heads."

Frank:
The dead heads were
later identified

as Mia Farrow's...

mannequins for her wigs,
probably in her profession.

I did not find that to be

an unreasonable description
by a seven-year-old

that's trying to identify
what was in Mom's attic.

Maureen Orth:
Part of their conclusion
of why Dylan fantasized

was because she referred to
"the magic hour."

And, you know,

anybody who's grown up
around filmmakers knows that

certain hours of the day
do have the magic light.

Dylan:
I was the kid of two people
in the film industry.

And I was on set a lot!

So how was I supposed
to know that that

constitutes magical thinking?

Stephen Herman:
I mean, that's a pretty
big thing to say

a seven-year-old child
is delusional,

isn't thinking right,

doesn't know the difference
between fantasy and reality.

This report failed
to reflect anything

even close to the child
having a psychotic disorder.

Not even close.

♪ ♪

Narrator:
Jennifer Sawyer
and Dr. Julia Hamilton,

two social workers
on Leventhal's team,

interviewed Dylan.

But according to
Dr. Leventhal's deposition,

Yale-New Haven's practice
was to destroy all notes

after the completion
of an evaluation.

So, ultimately,
no contemporaneous
record exists

of what the social workers
thought or observed

when they interviewed Dylan.

Stephen:
All of the notes
were destroyed.

(Amy Ziering speaking)

No. Notes are never destroyed.

Notes are never destroyed
during a forensic evaluation.

Never, ever, ever destroyed.

Notes are evidence,

and we would turn
over any drawings,

any notes we took
in an interview.

Anything that was
written down in an interview

would be handed over
to law enforcement.

Frank:
If I had elected to go
to trial on this case,

my first question to
each of those evaluators,

"Let me see your
contemporaneous notes

in your interview
of this child."

Destroyed. All of them.

Bottom line,
this was basically
a runaway evaluation.

Michelle:
Yale-New Haven did not have

the authority to reach
their conclusion.

You know,
they're talking about
whether a crime occurred,

and the people who
decide whether a child

is a victim of a crime
is a judge or a jury.

I make the decision, not Yale.

I haven't relinquished my
constitutional responsibility

to decide whether or not
we're going to prosecute.

It is up to a trained prosecutor
to determine whether or not

that child has been
sexually abused, period.

No one should
hold up that report

and say Woody Allen
was exonerated.

♪ ♪

Narrator:
While the investigation
continued in Connecticut,

the investigation in New York

by the
Child Welfare Administration
was also underway.

The supervisor assigned to
the case was Sheryl Harden.

Sheryl Harden:
In my sex abuse unit,
I was a senior supervisor.

We investigated child abuse
throughout the five boroughs

of the City of New York.

So after I read the allegations
and I looked at it,

I said, okay,
I'll assign this to Paul.

(inaudible)

Paul Williams was one of
the top investigators
that I had.

He was very thorough.
He was objective.

Bruce Baron:
Paul Williams
had roughly handled

about 800 cases at the time,

and just the year before,
in 1991,

the City of New York

awarded him
Caseworker of the Year.

It was the first time
that they had ever

awarded such an award
to a caseworker.

Sheryl:
Paul interviewed Dylan

and found her
to be quite credible.

♪ ♪

At her age, she should
not know anything about

inserting a finger
into the vagina.

She should not
know anything about

inserting a finger
into the anus.

Those are not things
that should be

easy for her to discuss,

um, unless there's
something occurring.

Narrator:
Among the records
we obtained

were a complete set
of Paul Williams'

contemporaneous
investigation notes.

Within the first two weeks of
being assigned to the case,

Williams reported
that there was sufficient
information

to open a criminal
investigation of Woody Allen

in the state of New York.

He was later told
by superiors that,

"in high-profile cases,
it is customary

for the big wigs to take over,
and we do nothing."

♪ ♪

Bruce:
This was no ordinary case.

Filings were misfiled.

Misinformation was
put into the computer.

There was clearly
a strong political...

climate to shut
this thing down.

But Paul Williams,
his agenda

was the best interest
of the child.

The City of New York
had another agenda.

They needed to suffocate
and silence Paul Williams.

And when he wouldn't shut up,
they fired him.

(Amy Ziering speaking)

That he was insubordinate.

He wasn't, he wasn't
following instructions.

I have no comment
to say, okay?

Rosanna (on video):
Paul Williams may not want
to answer our questions,

but his attorney assures us

he is not running away
from an investigation

into whether someone
may have intervened

in New York City's handling

of the child abuse allegations
against Woody Allen.

I did my job,
and I believe the kid, okay?

-You believe the kid?
-Yes. I have seen no evidence

to led me to believe otherwise.
I have nothing further.

Reporter: Confidential notes
obtained from the Human
Resources Administration

indicate that
the investigator attributed

the decision not to pursue
the case to the mayor's office,

a charge they deny.

This wasn't about
one supervisor

or, or one,
one department

in, in this agency.

This was a massive
cover-up attempt,

and Paul was caught
in the middle.

Reporter:
Williams is suing the city,

charging that
the mayor's office hid

and suppressed
information in the case.

Williams contends that
higher-ups muzzled him,

refusing to allow him
to report his findings

either to New York
family court

or to authorities
in Connecticut,

where a parallel investigation
is still going on.

♪ ♪

Every procedure, every rule,
every regulation,

every statute, every ordinance

with respect to investigation
of a child sexual abuse

in this matter was violated.

Reporter:
Women's rights activist
Gloria Steinem

came to lend her support
to Paul Williams.

Gloria Steinem:
Someone who knew the case

got in touch with me

as just as a reporter,
as a journalist.

So, I talked to Paul.
He seemed to me

a very admirable, smart,

empathetic person
with no possible motive

to do anything but do his best
to, to find out the truth.

Bruce:
The determination that
the judge made was that

he shouldn't have been fired,

and he was awarded his
job back and back pay

for what was taken from him.

Paul Williams
felt vindicated

in the individual sense

of what happened, in terms
of getting his job back,

but he was never
able to complete

the very job he was given.

Narrator:
Paul Williams still works
for New York City's

Administration for
Children's Services,

and a spokesperson
from the agency

declined our request
for an interview.

But in looking through
his old case files,

we were surprised
to see a familiar name.

Williams had corresponded
directly with Jennifer Sawyer,

one of the social workers
who had interviewed Dylan

for the Yale-New Haven
investigation in Connecticut.

According to Williams' notes,

Sawyer had told him
that she had not only

considered Dylan credible,

but believed that she
had more to disclose.

Sawyer's notes
were later destroyed.

In the end, the result was

that people
with power were able

to get the case removed.

It just seemed to me,

from everything I could
glean as a reporter,

to be a case of great injustice.

I don't sleep at night.
What I do is lay awake,

thinking about how horrendous

this entire matter has been,
what they've done to her.

♪ ♪

Sheryl:
The elite can do
whatever they need to do,

whatever they want to do,

and there's no
consequences for it.

Not long after that,
I think maybe a year later,

I left the city
agency completely.

(Amy Ziering speaking)

Because I could not
continue to do what I did

to those low-income families,
those Black families, and

welfare families,

and have them
treated differently

than if they would've
been a Woody Allen.

(indistinct chatter)

Casey Pascal:
He's got an army of lawyers,

and he's very wealthy.

You know, people
bend over backwards
to do what he wants.

Mia:
What I really thought was
that Woody was all-powerful,

and that what he had
told me was true,

and that he could
control the Yale people,

the doctor there,
and he could control,

somehow, the New York people

because he made
his movies in New York.

That brought millions of
dollars to New York City.

And what he had
said to me was that,

"It doesn't matter what's true.

What matters is
what's believed."

And that--
He said it in such a cold way

that...

I thought, "Could he be right?"

♪ ♪

And then Woody
sued me for custody,

saying that I had to
hand over my children

'cause I was an unfit mother,

turning my children against
him with horrible lies.

(inaudible)

That he was gonna take
Dylan, Moses, and Satchel.

(inaudible)

But I also faced losing
all of my children

because if Woody were believed
that I was a horrible mother,

what would happen
to all the other adopted
children in the family?

I mean, there was
a lot to lose.

(Mia speaking)

(Woody speaking)

♪ ♪

John EB Myers:
If you look back from
an historical point of view,

there's clearly a bias against
women who made allegations

of rape and sexual abuse
against children.

The very term hysteria,
as applied to women,

was easy to believe that

women who made allegations
were themselves mentally ill.

I personally read
every law review article

on this subject from
the 1880s to the 1970s, and

the level of skepticism
of women's allegations

of rape and sexual assault
was almost monolithic.

People don't want to believe
that this could be happening
in the context of a family.

It's so awful to think
that a father could be
doing this to his child

that, that we
would rather assume,

we'll look for any explanation
other than that being the truth.

♪ ♪

Reporter:
Dr. Richard Gardner,

known for his innovative
work on children of divorce,

coined the term,
"parental alienation syndrome."

The idea is that one parent,
caught up in a custody battle,

programs children
against the other parent.

Even fabricating
charges of sexual abuse.

It's not a rare phenomenon.
Um, it's quite common.

Reporter:
He says it usually
arises when a mother,

afraid of losing custody,

uses false accusations
as a weapon.

In about 90% of cases,
it's the mother

who is the programmer,
and the father

who is the victim
of the campaign.

Joan Meier:
He said that when
mothers report

child sexual abuse
in custody litigation,

most of the time, they are
doing so not because it's true,

but because they want
to alienate the children
from their father.

Children are very suggestible,
and it's easier for them

to start off with
suggested ideas,

which develop into delusions.

I believe that
we are witnessing

the third greatest
wave of hysteria

that we've ever seen
in this country.

John:
The problem with
his syndrome is that

it became a device for
not believing people,

and an easy way
to brand the woman

as mentally unstable

and a deliberate fabricator.

So here comes
a book that professes

to give us charts
and diagrams and numbers

and easy explanations
for how to sort out

whether this is true or false.

It's all bogus.
It's not real science,

but it looks like science.

♪ ♪

Joan:
There were large studies in
the US and around the world,

and they found that reports
of child sexual abuse

are rarely intentionally false.

Kathy Slobogin:
Gardner himself admits
that his theories

aren't based on any scientific
or clinical research.

Just his experience.

His work on parental alienation

isn't reviewed by peers.

He publishes it all himself.

Joan:
He was clearly
very, very troubled.

He said crazy things,
and he put some of them
in print.

♪ ♪

He said that the earlier
children become sexualized,

the better it is for the race

because they'll have more sex
and more offspring.

So this is all natural
and good for them,
for the species.

After some of that
became exposed,

people started disparaging
Richard Gardner

and the parental
alienation syndrome,

but then they just started
to keep on using it,

even using his same criteria.

So often, fathers
who are accused of abuse

respond by suing for custody.

Joan:
Very often, the abuser
files for custody

to tamp down any kind of
criminal investigation
that's going on.

The timing of when
Woody Allen filed for custody

matches this strategy.

Narrator:
Within a week of learning

he was being investigated
for child abuse,

Woody Allen filed a lawsuit
against Mia Farrow

for sole custody of Dylan,
Satchel, and Moses.

The suit claimed Mia was
emotionally disturbed,

unable to manage the rearing
of her nine children,

and was brainwashing
the children with respect

to the false allegations of
sexual misconduct by Allen.

♪ ♪

(Mia speaking)

(Woody speaking)

(beep)

(man speaking)

A judge has barred
television cameras

from the courtroom during
tomorrow's custody hearing

between Woody Allen
and Mia Farrow.

Allen is suing for custody of
the couple's three children.

Reporter:
He said he should have custody

of the three youngest children
he shared with Farrow

because she was seeking
vengeance on him

through the children
and using them as pawns.

We are confident
that after the, uh...

all the evidence is in,
we will prevail
at the custody hearing.

Rosanna:
It was totally a circus
in that courtroom.

Everybody was
jockeying for seats.

I mean, every tabloid,

every big TV personality
was there.

Everybody wanted to know

how this was going
to end for Woody Allen.

Peter Marks:
You know, Woody Allen,
to New York,

was a homegrown hero
to a whole generation

of artists,

intellectuals, journalists.

I grew up with
Woody Allen as a hero.

"The New York Times"
was Woody Allen's

hometown paper in so many ways.

Vincent Canby, the film critic
for "The New York Times,"

had long been a champion
of Woody's work,

and the readership of
"The New York Times"

and the viewership
of Woody's films

were almost, you know,
two parallel audiences.

William Grimes:
He was the ultimate
New Yorker.

I mean, next to
the Statue of Liberty,

who was the most
famous New Yorker?

Who expressed the city best?

Who epitomized it
to the ultimate degree?

It was Woody Allen,
and so,

the atmosphere was
one of rapt attention.

Narrator:
The Allen v. Farrow trial

was presided over by
Judge Elliott Wilk,

who would determine custody
and visitation rights

for Dylan, Satchel, and Moses.

Woody Allen was the first
witness sworn in,

and his attorney,
Elkan Abramowitz,

lead the questioning.

♪ ♪

These claims of Mr. Allen
were contradicted in court

by three people who were
supervising the children

on the day of his visit.

Kristi Groteke,
Dylan's babysitter,

testified that she
had searched the house
looking for Dylan,

but was unable to locate her
for about 20 minutes.

During that same period,
Sophie Bergé, Dylan's tutor,

testified she was outside
with the other children,

where neither Dylan
nor Allen were to be found.

Earlier, Alison Stickland,
another babysitter,

testified that
she had walked in

on Dylan and Allen
in the TV room.

Peter:
His head in her crotch.

That stuck with me.

I remember reporters all like
exchanging sidelong glances.

There seems no
reasonable (laughs)

way to look at that behavior

as anything but trouble.

♪ ♪

William:
The Woody who appeared
at the trial was a...

frightened,
defensive creature

who was out of his element.

There was no sense from him

that the motivation
for wanting sole custody

was his deep love
for these children,

his concern for their welfare.

I think you did get a sense
of his anger with Mia Farrow.

Peter:
It was really about

portraying Mia as vindictive

and seeking revenge for
the relationship with Soon-Yi.

They were attempting
to make the case that,

you know,
Mia had concocted this story

as a way to punish Woody.

(static)

Narrator:
The videotape of Dylan
talking about abuse

in the TV room
and then in the attic

was entered as evidence
in the custody trial.

Mia testified that she had
taped Dylan over two days

whenever she had started
to speak about it.

As part of our research,
we asked a team of
independent experts

to evaluate the tape.

(tape static)

(Dylan speaking)

What a child forensic
interviewer is gonna be
looking for is

as the child
is describing what happened,

does it seem like they
are recounting something

that actually happened to them,
or is there a disconnect

between the words that they're
using and their body language

or their voice inflection
or that sort of thing?

John Clune:
You can see the child
almost physically reenacting

as though they're recalling
what happened to them,

by you can see her reaching
towards her backside.

Mia: Mm-hmm.

Mia: Mm-hmm.

Anna Salter:
Mia Farrow was actually pretty
careful in her questions.

All she did was say,

"Who, what, when,
where, and how."

There were no overt
suggestions like,

"He molested you, didn't he?"

So there's none of that
kind of coaching going on,

where there are implicit
suggestions, such as,

um, one that I saw was

Mia Farrow clearly believed that

he must've taken
the child's pants off,

so she asked,
"Did he take your pants off?"

Anna:
Dylan says no.
She keeps coming back.

Anna::
From my point of view,

what's important
is Dylan's response.

Does she go along
with the suggestion?

"Yes, he-- Oh yeah, yeah,
he took my pants off."

But she doesn't.

It's not just what
the interviewer says.

It's whether the child
is suggestible or not
that matters.

And Dylan says no
to things like that.

She's very consistent
in her story in this.

Michelle:
When a child is
disclosing a conversation

or something that
another person says,

um, that again increases
the credibility of the statement

'cause she's restating
something that she heard.

And so that's, again,
something that would be hard

to be coached on
or fabricate about.

John:
The child is starting
to kind of shut down.

It wouldn't surprise me
at all, watching this clip,

if the child already
is getting tired of

being asked these questions.

Anna:
That is a very
typical progression

for an abused child.

Not so much for
a false accusation.

False accusations tend to
get stronger under pressure.

Mia:
No.

Mia: Okay.
We'll stop talking then.
I'm gonna turn this off.

♪ ♪

(static)

Dylan:
What's in that tape
feels like that is

who I am when you strip away

everything else.

When you look underneath
all my layers,

down to the very
center of who I am.

I am that little girl
on the tape.

(sighs) So...

it's a very
vulnerable part of me.

Um, and a very...

a very hurt part of me.

There's a lot of...

That little girl
is in a lot of pain.

♪ ♪

This kind of abuse

warps something
inside of you.

Because it doesn't happen

by a stranger that
snatches you off the street

and throws you in a van.

♪ ♪

It happens
by someone you love
and someone you trust.

Someone who buckles
your seatbelt,

takes your hand when you
walk down the street,

reads you bedtime stories.

♪ ♪

It's incomprehensible

to normal people

because it's not normal.

Reporter:
It was the 20th day of a trial

that has played out
over nearly seven weeks

in a New York courtroom,

a day for closing arguments

by lawyers for Woody Allen,

who is seeking custody
of three children

from his 12-year
unmarried partnership
with Mia Farrow.

Farrow wiped tears
from her eyes

as Abramowitz accused her
of seeking revenge

for Allen's affair
with Soon-Yi.

The attorney argued,
"a mother who cannot

"subjugate her anger
at a father

is unfit to be a parent."

♪ ♪

Mia:
I was so scared.

And I didn't know
what would happen next.

And so, we waited
for the decision.

We waited a week.

We waited two weeks.

We waited a month.

And finally,

the judge brought
his opinion down.

Woody Allen's bitter
child custody battle
with Mia Farrow,

waged for ten months,
often in public, is over.

And a New York judge today
cast Allen in a role

he has often played onscreen:
loser.

Reporter:
The judge saw Allen
did not demonstrate

parenting skills
that would qualify him

to care for Moses,
Dylan, or Satchel.

Peter:
On June 7th, 1993,

Judge Wilk issued
his decision,

and it was scathing.

Narrator:
He stated, "Mr. Allen's
behavior towards Dylan

"was grossly inappropriate,

"and that measures must
be taken to protect her.

"It is unclear whether
Mr. Allen will ever develop

"the insight
and judgment necessary

"for him to relate to
Dylan appropriately.

"The evidence at trial
established that Ms. Farrow

"is a caring and loving mother.

"I am not persuaded that
the videotape of Dylan

"is the product of
leading questions
or of the child's fantasy.

"There is no credible
evidence to support

Mr. Allen's contention that
Ms. Farrow coached Dylan."

Reporter:
He ruled Allen could not visit
Dylan for at least six months,

and questioned whether
he could ever be

a fit parent to the girl.

Allen will be able to have
supervised visits with Satchel,

the couple's biological child.

But 15-year-old Moses
was left to decide

whether he wants to see
his adoptive father.

Narrator:
Judge Wilk also
addressed the findings

of the Yale-New Haven report
in his decision, stating,

"The unavailability
of the notes,

"together with
their unwillingness
to testify at this trial,

"resulted in a report
which was sanitized,

and, therefore,
less credible."

Peter:
He could've very easily said,

"I followed the guidelines
of the Yale study team.

They're a very, very
prestigious organization."

But he didn't.

He said he didn't buy it.

I didn't buy it either.

I-- You know, it's hard.
As a reporter,

it's hard to admit this
in a way.

I absolutely
worshiped Woody Allen

before this trial, and...

I still--
Well, the proof is

I could never watch
a Woody Allen film
again after this.

(scoffs)

It's...

It's still... It still hurts,

and it still wrenches me
to say that.

It's just--
it's still not easy
to say that.

♪ ♪

Mia:
My hope now is that
I can go home,

back to my children,

and that we will finally

have some measure of peace,

and be allowed to heal,

to begin that.

It was a very strange

feeling for me,

being told that...

(sighs)

I never had to see him again.

And it wasn't framed as,

"You're never gonna
see your father again."

It was framed as...

"Do you ever want to
see him again?" And...

I didn't.

Woody:
I feel it's...

unfortunate, even
tragic for the kids,

that I didn't get
custody of them.

And, uh, and if I could
have just a second to thank

all the people in the streets

and at the Knick games

and who have come over to me
and given me their support

and said terrific things
to me and, you know,

I'm still in there fighting

and doing my best,
and thank you.

♪ ♪

(reporter speaking)

Eleanor Alter:
I don't know.

I have no idea what
Connecticut's going to do.

I don't even know all
the information they have.

They have been very diligent.

I think they are also
acting as best they can

to protect the children
in this family.

Frank:
My instructions to
the Connecticut State Police

was to gather your evidence,

and submit to me
an arrest warrant application.

The decision as
to whether or not

there was going to be
a prosecution was my decision.

♪ ♪

Narrator:
Maco's team had
compiled 1,700 pages

of evidentiary material,

including witness statements,

logs of the physical evidence
collected by police,

forensic reports,

maps of the crime scene,

and reports of interviews with
all of the people involved.

Among the state's
evidence were records

of a police interview
with Woody Allen

where he was inconsistent

about whether he had ever been
in the attic crawlspace area,

and interviews with Dylan

by three clinically trained
child abuse experts

from different
government agencies,

all of whom found
Dylan to be consistent,

honest, and believed
she was telling the truth.

♪ ♪

The conclusion of
his investigators

was that there was
probable cause to issue

an arrest warrant
for Woody Allen

on the charges of
first and fourth degree

sexual assault of a minor.

Frank:
I was confident there
was probable cause.

Meaning reasonable grounds to
believe a crime was committed,

but I have to prove my case
beyond a reasonable doubt.

I can't prove a case
beyond a reasonable doubt

without a child.

In other words,
could this child

be my first witness

on the stand to say
what had occurred?

This case hinged
on the testimony of
a seven-year-old girl.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

SPEAKER: The option was clear.
Have Allen arrested,

go to trial, and put the child
on the stand

as my first witness.

But was it truly,
in her best interest?

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

REPORTER: Allen denies
child abuse.

DYLAN FARROW: I caused a rift
in my family.

None of my siblings
were ever the same.

RONAN FARROW: I just wanted
to run away from this.

When I read the court documents,
my reaction was,

"Well, holy shit."

REPORTER 2: Could you give us
a comment, Woody?

RONAN: There was incentive
to be drawn into efforts

to discredit my sister.

SPEAKER 2: This is a calculated
move in a media war.

MIA FARROW: I was so scared.

I didn't know what would
happen next.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪