Attorneys for Murray Miller, a writer for Lena Dunham‘s HBO show Girls, are rescinding their claim that actress Aurora Perrineau demanded money from Miller upon accusing him of sexual assault.
According to Variety, Miller’s lawyers, Donald Walerstein and Matthew Walerstein, are now calling it a “misunderstanding.” On Nov. 17, the Wrap reported that Perrineau, 23, filed a police report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department saying that Miller, who is 40, raped her in 2012, when she was 17.
In responding to Perrineau’s claims, Matthew Walerstein initially said Miller had been contacted in the weeks prior by Perrineau’s lawyers who “sought substantial monetary damages from him.”
“… Mr. Miller’s legal team gathered overwhelming evidence directly contradicting these false and offensive claims. Only after her demands for money were rebuffed did Ms. Perrineau go to the police,” the lawyer’s statement read.
However, the lawyers’ latest statement to Variety says Perrineau had never attempted to extort Miller and called the previous statement a “misunderstanding.”
“In a previous statement to the media, we stated that Ms. Perrineau sought substantial monetary damages from our client Murray Miller. Neither Ms. Perrineau nor her attorney have ever made a demand for money. Our previous above statement was incorrect and the result of a good-faith misunderstanding,” the new statement reads.
Dunham and her co-showrunner for Girls Jenni Konner previously walked back a statement they had made standing up for Miller after being criticized for their position.
“Every woman who comes forward deserves to be heard, fully and completely, and our relationship with the accused should not be part of the calculation anyone makes when examining her case,” Dunham wrote in her apology.
Editor’s Note: The headline and lede of this article have been updated for clarity.
