John Wilson and his son, Johnny, residents of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, are hitting back at Netflix with a lawsuit alleging defamation in the portrayal of their family in the 2021 documentary "Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admission Scandal." According to a complaint filed in Barnstable Superior Court, the duo claims that Netflix, along with its producers, rushed their production which led to a distorted and defamatory interpretation of their involvement in the high-profile college admissions scandal, as reported by the Boston Herald.
Although Wilson was initially charged with paying hefty sums to secure his children's admissions to elite universities, and consequently sentenced to prison, the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Wilson’s admissions scam conviction. His legal team had previously handed Netflix a staggering 450-page "written warning" about the potential inaccuracies before the documentary's release – a detail Netflix seems to have ignored, as reported by PR Newswire.
The lawsuit details that Johnny Wilson was indeed an accomplished athlete, and not a fabricated one as "Operation Varsity Blues" might suggest to its audience. Wilson insists his donations were made to college foundations or IRS-approved charities and not individual coaches' pockets. "Netflix willingly chose to group my highly qualified children and me into a scandal involving celebrities who, unlike me, pled guilty and acknowledged their roles in shameful actions," Wilson said in a statement.
Furthermore, the lawsuit accuses Netflix of employing cinematic sleight of hand by interspersing words of Wilson between reenactments of corrupt behavior committed by other parents. Such tactics, according to the family's lead attorney William Charles Tanenbaum, taint an innocent family by association. "Good faith news reporting deserves protection. What Netflix authorized in its 'documentary' deserves the opposite," Tanenbaum denounced the implicated conduct in a statement acquired by PR Newswire.
Despite Wilson's exoneration from the core charges, Netflix has not updated the film, leaving viewers with an uncorrected account of the Wilsons' alleged involvement. As per market research cited in the lawsuit, many who watched the film ended up believing false accusations against the Wilson family, which never held water in the courtroom. Addressing the ramifications of the film, John Wilson stated, "We have suffered tremendous harm as Netflix chose sensationalism over accuracy, a deliberate choice which destroyed our reputations and grossly violated the ethics of documentary filmmaking as well as basic decency." The Wilsons are now demanding that Netflix retract their false statements and issue a public apology, in addition to pursuing monetary damages for reputational harm.
