Author Amy Griffin has escalated a legal dispute surrounding her memoir, The Tell, by filing a counter-lawsuit in federal court in Nevada against a woman who previously accused her of appropriating personal stories of sexual abuse for the book.
The latest filing comes months after a lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles by a woman identified only as Jane Doe. In that lawsuit, Doe alleged that she and Griffin attended Austin Middle School in Amarillo during the late 1980s and that she shared details of sexual assaults she experienced. According to Doe, those experiences later appeared in Griffin’s memoir, which Griffin has described as an account of her own recovered memories that surfaced following MDMA-assisted therapy.
Doe’s lawsuit further alleged that Griffin employed private investigators to locate individuals and gather information that could support Griffin’s claims about repressed memories. The complaint also claimed Doe was contacted in 2022 by a person presenting himself as a talent agent.
Griffin’s newly filed counterclaim disputes those allegations and argues that key assertions made in the original lawsuit are false. According to the Nevada filing, Griffin and Doe have not communicated in more than three decades since attending school together. The lawsuit also contends that the individual described as a talent agent had no connection to Griffin and never communicated with either woman on her behalf.
The counter-lawsuit further challenges Doe’s claim that Griffin incorporated Doe’s personal experiences into The Tell. Griffin maintains that the memoir recounts her own experiences and memories, rejecting allegations that material in the book originated from Doe.
Another point of contention involves a character identified in the original lawsuit. Doe alleged that a figure in the memoir was based on her and stemmed from conversations she had with Griffin during a meeting in Palm Springs in 2019. Griffin’s filing disputes that account, asserting the two never met at that time. The lawsuit instead claims the individual who inspired the character was someone Griffin encountered in 2023 at a coffee shop far from Palm Springs.
In addition to disputing the factual allegations contained in the original complaint, Griffin is seeking a court declaration that statements published in a newspaper article regarding claims of stolen stories are false and defamatory. She is also seeking damages and any additional relief the court deems appropriate.
.jpg)
