TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has reached a settlement agreement with Jenn Allen. He’s posted a copy of the agreement on his site Uncrunched, and it says that “Allen retracts, and expresses her regret for making, the Statements.” Apparently that covers a number of statements Allen made accusing Arrington of abusing and raping her.
Arrington, meanwhile, has dropped his lawsuit against Allen for allegedly making “false and defamatory statements.”
Allen has not commented publicly on the settlement, which is dated April 24 — however, she does appear to have signed it. I’ve reached out to her and to her lawyer (who is apparently out of the office today).
The settlement agreement does not mention any payment. The filing in which Arrington withdrew his lawsuit says that the suit is being dismissed “with prejudice” (so it can’t be filed again) and that both parties are responsible for their attorneys’ fees.
Allen first made her accusations against Arrington on Facebook more than a year ago, and she continued to repeat and elaborate on them on social media (and in the comments of related blog posts). Arrington denied the accusations, published supporting evidence, and ultimately sued Allen.
The coverage of those statements stirred up other accusations, which TechCrunch discussed here.
In today’s post, Arrington claimed that there were three things that led to the settlement, including Allen’s attempt to “coerce” another woman into corroborating her accusations, the statements of another ex boyfriend “that Jenn had been abusive and extremely delusional with him too”, and Allen’s own deposition, in which Arrington said she admitted to taking “a strong antipsychotic medication” beforehand.
Arrington wrote:
Unfortunately, when you have been accused of rape — even provably falsely as I have been — there’s no way to “win”. For the rest of my life, when someone searches my name on the internet, the word “rape” will appear somewhere among the results. And that person will always wonder whether or not I was capable of such a heinous act.
Settlement Agreement by TechCrunch