Ann Altman has filed a lawsuit in US federal court alleging that she was sexually abused by Sam Altman
post by quanticle · 2025-01-08T14:59:24.140Z · LW · GW · 3 commentsContents
3 comments
On January 6, 2025, Ann Altman filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Missouri alleging that Sam Altman carried out multiple acts of sexual abuse against her over "a period of approximately eight or nine years" starting in 1997. The case number is 4:25-cv-00017
, for those who have PACER access.
I find the lawsuit complaint notable because the alleged scope of the abuse appears to be much greater than indicated in pythagoras0515's post [LW · GW].
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comment by quanticle · 2025-01-09T07:23:30.012Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
The content of the complaint caused me to have additional doubt about the truth of Ann Altman's claims. One of the key claims in pythagoras0515's post is that Ann Altman's claims have been self-consistent. That is, Ann Altman has been claiming that approximately the same acts occurred, over a consistent period of time, when given the opportunity to express her views. However, here, there is significant divergence. In the lawsuit complaint, she is alleging that the abuse took place, repeatedly over eight to nine years, a claim that is not supported by any of the evidence in pythagoras0515's post. In addition, another claim from the original post is that the reason she's only bringing up these allegations now is because she suppressed the memory of the abuse. The science behind suppressed memory is controversial, but I doubt that even its staunchest advocates would claim that a person could involuntarily suppress the memory of repeated acts carried out consistently over a long period of time. Therefore, I am more inclined to doubt Ann Altman's allegations based on the contents of the initial complaint filed for the lawsuit.
All that said, I do look forward to seeing what other evidence she can bring forth to support her claims, assuming that Sam Altman doesn't settle out of court to avoid the negative publicity of a trial.
comment by Samuel Hapák (hleumas) · 2025-01-08T22:05:13.071Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Is there any chance for her to win? I mean, whether it happened or not, it’s word against word, right?
Replies from: karl-krueger↑ comment by Karl Krueger (karl-krueger) · 2025-01-08T23:31:18.577Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Too soon to say. Right now, nobody but the plaintiff and her lawyers knows what evidence they'll be presenting.