Girls creator and star Lena Dunham has come to the defense of producer Murray Miller, who was accused Friday of raping a then-17-year-old actress in 2012.
Aurora Perrineau — the daughter of former Lost actor Harold Perrineau — filed a police report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office Friday claiming that after a night out at a bar in Los Angeles in 2012, she awoke to find Murray having sex with her in his bed.
Perrineau shared the results of a polygraph test she claims to have passed with The Wrap Friday, in which she claimed that Miller had been flirting with her at the Standard Hotel, despite her telling him that she was 17. Perrineau had reportedly been with two friends, and Miller, who was 35 at the time, asked for a ride home. Perrineau said she and her friends all got out of the car at Miller’s residence.
“At some point, I woke up in Murray’s bed naked. He was on top of me having sexual intercourse with me. At no time did I consent to any sexual contact with Murray,” Perrineau reportedly said in the polygraph statement.
In a statement to The Wrap though his attorney, Miller “categorically and vehemently” denied the allegation and said his team had evidence contradicting the actress’s account. Miller also accused Perrineau of attempting to extort him, a charge the actress’s mother denied in a statement.
Dunham, who worked with Miller on the HBO series Girls, defended the writer and producer in a joint statement with Girls co-showrunner Jenni Konner issued Friday.
“While our first instinct is to listen to every woman’s story, our insider knowledge of Murray’s situation makes us confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3% of assault cases that are misreported every year,” Dunham and Konner said.
“It is a true shame to add to that number, as outside of Hollywood women still struggle to be believed. We stand by Murray and this is all we’ll be saying about this issue,” the statement added.
Miller is one of dozens of Hollywood figures to have been accused of sexual misconduct in recent weeks.
Dunham claimed in her 2014 memoir Not That Kind of Girl that she had been raped by a Republican named “Barry” while she was a student at Oberlin College. An investigation by Breitbart News using the details Dunham provided about her rapist later cleared this “Barry” from the allegations, though Dunham waited months before issuing a statement saying that the name “Barry” was a pseudonym.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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