Netflix‘s newest documentary focuses on multiple sides of a morally questionable scenario: is it real love if they can’t communicate? If you’ve watched the riveting doc film all the way through, you might be wondering where Anna Stubblefield is now after her relationship with her student.
Tell Them You Love Me follows the story of Anna Stubblefield, a former tenured professor at Rutgers University, and Derrick “D.J” Johnson, a nonverbal man with cerebral palsy. While at Rutgers, Stubblefield claimed that she and Johnson fell in love after his brother introduced the two. The professor taught Johnson facilitated communication, or F.C., an assisted-typing technique that claims to give people with disabilities the power to communicate. The two engaged in consensual sexual activities, but Johnson’s mother Daisy Johnson claimed that he was not able to give consent as her son didn’t have the capacity to engage in physical or emotional intimacy.
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Stubblefield was trialed in 2015 and was convicted of aggravated sexual assault. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The first 10 years, 2 months, and 13 days would be served with no possibility of parole. However, she was granted a retrial in 2017 and pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal sexual contact, according to Daily Orange.
Where is Anna Stubblefield now?
Stubblefield lives out of the public eye, per Belmont Filmhouse. She served two years before being released, and she divorced her husband according to the outlet. She is no longer in contact with Johnson. The former professor also gave insight into her life after jail.
“When I first came out of prison, I managed to pick up a waitressing job and then there was some publicity around the plea bargain and I was sentenced,” she said in the documentary. “One of the customers complained, so they let me go.”
She continued, “I’m working at home and nobody knows who I am. It’s not teaching, but that was my whole identity.” Stubblefield still maintains she and Johnson had a consensual relationship.
During the retrial, D.J’s brother told The New York Times that he and his family believe that it was non-consensual. “On behalf of my brother, who is nonverbal, I want to say, ‘Me, too,’” he told the publication. “This was not merely touching for ‘mutual pleasure.’ This was rape. She raped him two times. She did godawful things with him, and I believe the punishment is woefully inadequate.”
Related: Read where Robert Shinn is now—subject of Netflix’s Dancing For The Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult —here.
