Jezebel reports that actor Nate Parker recently posted a message via Facebook about the woman who accused him of rape in 1999. The victim committed suicide in 2012 and the actor explained that he was very sorry that she had done so. The actor’s upcoming film, The Birth of a Nation has caused the details surrounding the case to resurface.
According to Vanity Fair the incident occurred back when the actor was a wrestler at Penn State University. Parker and his roommate, Jean McGianni Celestin, were charged with raping a classmate after a night of drinking. We were immediately reminded of the Brock Turner, Stanford case as we read the details.
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| Nate Parker and Jean Celestin |
Similar to the Turner case, the woman claimed that she was unconscious while both Parker and Celestin argued that the sexual encounter was consensual. While Turner ended up withdrawing from Stanford University, Nate ended up transferring to a different school in Oklahoma.
The accuser’s brother recently revealed that she committed suicide because she was haunted by the incident. In court, she actually testified that she had attempted to commit suicide twice after the incident. “17-5” seems to be the actor’s numbers and we’re not making a Young Jeezy reference. The victim settled with the university for $17,500 shortly after the incident and 17 years later Fox Searchlight purchased The Birth of a Nation for $17.5 million at Sundance.