In an enormous miscarriage of justice, a Peruvian judge has found against anthropologist Marcela Poirier in the defamation suit filed against her by twice confirmed sexual harasser Luis Jaime Castillo Butters. The penalty is a $48K fine and one year, eight months in jail.
The judge also suspended Marcela's lawyer, Brenda Alvarez, from practicing law on the grounds that she supposedly tried to delay the trial. Brenda will immediately appeal, of course. The judge dismissed the testimony of all of Marcela's witnesses, including me...
the reporter who initially investigated allegations of sexual #harassment against Castillo and found them to be well supported (as did the sexual harassment commission of Castillo's university, the @PUCP, and @theNASciences, which ejected him from its ranks.
Castillo claimed that I made up all of the survivors (there were five in my reporting) and that it was all lies. But of course I stand by my reporting, which can be found on Balter's Blog (michael-balter.blogspot.com, search for Castillo.) I know who the victims...
are and recorded their stories faithfully. Marcela had important support from the Inst of Andean Studies and the NAS, but @AmericanAnthro and @saaorg refused to support her. So did several supposed #MeToo advocates. I will discuss the role of all these enablers...
later on in a detailed post. More to come. Justice will be done, but for now it is a terrible disaster for a colleague who told the truth and for women in Peru who cannot count on the justice system to protect them.
For background, here is my reporting on Castillo: michael-balter.blogspot.com/2020/06/andean…, michael-balter.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-vi…, michael-balter.blogspot.com/2021/02/specia…, michael-balter.blogspot.com/2020/08/did-pe…, michael-balter.blogspot.com/2020/09/there-…, michael-balter.blogspot.com/2022/03/twice-…. Plus: science.org/content/articl…
I should clarify that the jail sentence is suspended for now, but could be reinstated at any time if Marcela says or writes something the court deems unacceptable. In effect, she has been silenced, but the rest of us can speak even more loudly. #MeToo #harassment
Clarification: Castillo claimed that I colluded together with all the witnesses in the case, including Marcela, to fabricate the allegations against him.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
