Marjorie Anna Stubblefield (/ˈɑːnə/; born December 3, 1969) is a former professor of philosophy at Rutgers University–Newark, practitioner of facilitated communication, and convicted sexual assaulter.[1] Stubblefield was found guilty of raping a man with severe cerebral palsy when she reportedly believed to have communicated and gained consent from him using the controversial practice of facilitated communication. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In October 2016, the family was awarded $4 million in a civil lawsuit against Stubblefield. The 2023 documentary film Tell Them You Love Me covers the abuse case.
Anna Stubblefield | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marjorie Anna Stubblefield December 3, 1969 |
| Known for | Sexual abuse of a man with severe cerebral palsy |
| Criminal status | Released |
| Motive | Sexual gratification |
| Conviction(s) | Third-degree aggravated sexual assault |
| Criminal charge | First-degree aggravated sexual assault (2 counts; overturned) |
| Penalty | 656 days in prison (previously 12 years) |
| Details | |
| Victims | 1 |
| State(s) | New Jersey |
Date apprehended | 2015 |
Early life
editStubblefield grew up in Plymouth, Michigan, with her mother, Sandra McClennen, and her father. She was raised Jewish. During her high school years, Stubblefield wrote for the school newspaper, studied Braille, and learned American Sign Language.[2]
Academic career
editStubblefield received her PhD in 2000, and became "a prominent scholar in the field of Africana philosophy", and chairwoman of the American Philosophical Association's Committee on the Status of Black Philosophers,[2] and the author of a book published by Cornell University Press titled Ethics Along the Color Line. In 2001, she became a philosophy professor at Rutgers University–Newark, where she also served as a faculty advisor to the university's Disability Services Office. Her university website described her as a "Facilitated Communication Trainer by the FC Institute at the School of Education, Syracuse University."[3]
Abuse and legal proceedings
editIn 2015, Stubblefield was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault against a man with severe cerebral palsy, which makes assessing his mental capacity with accuracy impossible. At the time the investigation began in 2011, Stubblefield was the chair of Rutgers-Newark's philosophy department, whose professional work centered on ethics, race, and disability rights,[4] but she was subsequently put on administrative leave without pay and removed as chair of the philosophy department.[5][6]
The victim was identified as D.J., a 33-year-old African-American man with severe mental disabilities who cannot speak, has cerebral palsy, and is unable to stand independently or accurately direct movements of his body. Based on his disability, his mother and brother were appointed his legal guardians.[4] Stubblefield stated that she had successfully communicated with him, determining he was of normal intelligence. She subsequently brought him to conferences where she "held him out as a success story". In 2011, she revealed to his mother and brother that she had had sexual relations with D.J. and said that they were in love, attributing consent to messages received while facilitating. Stubblefield stated that the two of them had a mutually consenting relationship established through facilitated communication. However, testing of D.J. by family members failed to establish the ability to communicate, and Stubblefield was thanked but denied further access to D.J. She continued to attempt to maintain contact with D.J. and began challenging control of D.J.'s legal guardians over him.[4] In August 2011, the family contacted the police.[5][7]
Stubblefield pleaded not guilty to the charges and said that facilitated communication revealed D.J. was mentally capable, while prosecutors said that facilitated communication was scientifically discredited and that D.J. did not have the ability to consent to sexual relations.[5][6] Experts evaluating D.J. testified he did not have the intellectual ability to consent to sexual activity.[8] Facilitated communication testimony from D.J. was not allowed as the technique was ruled unreliable under New Jersey law.[4] After a three-week trial, the jury found Stubblefield guilty of two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, the equivalent of rape in New Jersey.[4] After conviction, the judge revoked bail, saying that she was a flight risk.[4] She was sentenced to 12 years in prison.[9] This included requiring her to register as a sex offender.[9][10]
Before sentencing, Stubblefield wrote to Judge Siobhan Teare, stating, "I was deeply in love... I believed that he and I were intellectual equals, and that our romantic relationship was consensual and mutually loving. I intended no harm, and I had nothing to gain."[11]
In July 2017, an appeals court overturned her conviction and ordered a retrial on the basis that it was a violation of her rights to not allow her to use facilitated communication as a defense.[12][13] In 2018 she pleaded guilty to "third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact" and was sentenced to time served.[13] In October 2016, the family was awarded $4 million in a civil lawsuit against Stubblefield.[14]
The 2023 documentary film Tell Them You Love Me by Nick August-Perna covers the story.[15]
Reactions
editThe victim's brother spoke during Stubblefield's sentencing hearing, stating, "[Stubblefield] is not Sandra Bullock and this is not 'The Blind Side'... She raped my brother... She tried to supplant his life with some version of life she thought was better."[16]
Daniel Engber covered Stubblefield's trials for The New York Times. In 2018, Engber wrote:
"From my position in the gallery, reporting on the trial, it always seemed to me that Anna was entrapped by the grandiosity of her good intentions. As an academic, she devoted much of her career to social-justice activism and the philosophy of race and disability, warning in her published work that men like D.J. (who is black) were like 'the canary's canary' in the coal mine — 'the most vulnerable of the vulnerable' — and subject to both white supremacist and ableist oppression. In teaching D.J. how to type, using a widely disavowed method known as 'facilitated communication,' she believed she was restoring his right of self-determination: empowering him to take college classes, present papers at conferences and eventually express his longing for the older, married, white woman who had been his savior."[17]
James Todd, a professor of psychology at the Eastern Michigan University and a vocal critic of facilitated communication argued that Syracuse University, where Stubblefield received her training, held some of the responsibility for the crime. In 2018, he said:
"For decades, the Syracuse administration has not only tolerated dangerous facilitated communication pseudoscience, it has even openly championed FC over clear and established science... It is not too late. Syracuse University can still renounce and repudiate FC. It can take real responsibility for all the harm left in its wake."[18]
Personal life
editShe was married to Roger Stubblefield, with whom she has two children.[2] Since their divorce, Roger has called Anna a "pathological liar and narcissist".[19]
Works
editBooks
edit- Ethics Along the Color Line. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 2005. ISBN 9780801442674.
Articles
edit- "Beyond the Pale": Tainted Whiteness, Cognitive Disability, and Eugenic Sterilization." In Hypatia 22, no. 2, (Spring 2007): 162-181.
- "Contraceptive Risk-Taking and Norms of Chastity." In Journal of Social Philosophy 27, no. 3, (1996): 81-100.
- "The Entanglement of Race and Cognitive Dis/ability." In Cognitive Disability and Its Challenge to Moral Philosophy, edited by Kittay, Carlson, 293-313. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
- "Race, Disability, and the Social Contract." In The Southern Journal of Philosophy, no. 47, (2009): 104-111.
- "Race as Families." In Journal of Social Philosophy 27, no. 1, (2001): 99-112.
- "Living a Good Life... In Adult-Sized Diapers." In Disability and the Good Human Life, edited by Bickenbach, Felder, Schmitz, 219-242. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
See also
edit- Annie's Coming Out – based on the case of Anne McDonald
- List of abuse allegations made through facilitated communication
References
edit- ^ Mintz, Kevin (2017-11-26). "Ableism, ambiguity, and the Anna Stubblefield case". Disability & Society. 32 (10): 1666–1670. doi:10.1080/09687599.2017.1356058. ISSN 0968-7599.
- ^ a b c Engber, Daniel (2015-10-20). "The Strange Case of Anna Stubblefield". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
- ^ "Anna Stubblefield". 2010-06-27. Archived from the original on 2010-06-27. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
- ^ a b c d e f Daniel Engber (October 20, 2015). "The Strange Case of Anna Stubblefield". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on October 20, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
...the judge ruled that facilitated communication failed New Jersey's test for scientific evidence.
- ^ a b c Wichert, Bill (January 8, 2015). "New Jersey: Judge OKs document detailing Rutgers professor's sexual relations with a man with severe cerebral palsy". NJ Advance Media. New Jersey Online LLC. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
- ^ a b Zambito, Thomas (April 25, 2014). "Judge questions 'consent' defense in case of Rutgers-Newark professor accused of sexual assault". NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. New Jersey Online LLC. Retrieved March 21, 2015. Dead link as of October 22, 2015
- ^ Szteinbaum, Sabrina. "Former RutgersNewark philosophy department chairwoman to appear in court for alleged sexual abuse of mentally handicapped man". The Daily Targum. New Brunswick, New Jersey. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2015. Dead link as of October 22, 2015
- ^ Wichert, Bill (2015-10-02). "Professor found guilty of sexually assaulting disabled man". NJ.com. Archived from the original on 2019-02-07. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
- ^ a b "Professor who abused disabled man sentenced to prison". Associated Press via Star Tribune. Retrieved 15 January 2016.[permanent dead link]
- ^ David Porter, Associated Press (15 January 2016). "Professor who abused disabled man gets 12 years in prison". Times Union. Associated Press. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ Engber, Daniel (2016-02-03). "What Anna Stubblefield Believed She Was Doing". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-08-28.
- ^ State of New Jersey v. Stubblefield, 162 A.3d 1074 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div 2017-06-09).
- ^ a b Napoliello, Alex (11 May 2018). "No more prison for ex-Rutgers professor who sexually assaulted disabled student". NJ.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
- ^ Moriarty, Thomas (2018-03-19). "Ex-Rutgers prof admits it was a crime to have sex with disabled man". NJ.com. Archived from the original on 2018-03-19. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ Latif, Leila (3 February 2024). "Tell Them You Love Me review – this chilling documentary is vital, challenging TV". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 February 2024.
- ^ "Rutgers prof gets 12 years in prison". Courier News. Associated Press. Retrieved 2024-08-28.
- ^ Engber, Daniel (2018-04-05). "The Strange Case of Anna Stubblefield, Revisited". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-02.
- ^ "Educator trained in discredited communication method at SU pleads guilty to criminal sexual contact". The Daily Orange. 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2024-08-28.
- ^ "Where Anna Stubblefield & Derrick Johnson Are Today After Tell Them You Love Me's Controversial Case". MSN.