Tell Them You Love Me: 5 chilling details about Anna Stubblefield’s bizarre case

Netflix’s 2023 documentary Tell Them You Love Me revolves around the bizarre case of Anna Stubblefield, who was convicted in 2015 for 22 months due to her non-consensual relationship with Derrick Johnson, a non-verbal man suffering from cerebral palsy.

While Stubblefield has maintained innocence to date and claims that she shared a loving, consensual relationship with Johnson, the former Rutgers University professor was accused of various degrees of abuse, even if the final conviction was only related to the relationship itself.

The Netflix documentary has the following official synopsis:

"A professor has a relationship with a nonverbal man with cerebral palsy. Their affair leads to a criminal trial over disability and consent. The film shows interviews and footage presenting both perspectives."

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5 details about Anna Stubblefield’s case explored, as seen in Tell Them You Love Me

1. The questionable method of communication

The documentary delves into both sides of the story and reveals how Derrick Johnson used a technique known as facilitated communication to interact. While the method itself involves a support system that allows disabled people to type things using a keyboard, Anna’s insistence on using FC as a legitimate means of communication was discredited by the court.

Experts have since argued that the method leads to wrong, cryptic messages being typed out, which can even happen without the consciousness of the disabled person. The discredited mode of communication was used majorly by Anna to prove that her relationship with Johnson was consensual.

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2. The lack of bonafide consent

Furthermore, while Anna was able to prove that she had the consent and the "love" of her former partner, and as proof showed the various messages that he sent via FC, the court threw out the argument. This was because Johnson was stated to have the mental capacity of a toddler, which meant that the relationship was non-consensual and also the communication between Anna and her partner was unwarranted.

Hence, the fact that Johnson was not seen as a legal adult exposed the kind of manipulation that Anna perpetrated. However, with Johnson’s cognitive abilities proving to be the major contention by the prosecution, she ended up being convicted, even if she may have believed to be in an actual adult relationship.

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3. The sudden revelation

Derrick Johnson’s family initially seemed to be under the impression that FC had been helping him regain confidence in his non-verbal communication. However, while Johnson had previously never been in a relationship, and did not portray the capacity to maintain one, his family was in for a surprise when he used FC to inform them of the relationship.

However, Johnson’s family did not approve and immediately alerted the authorities in a bid to put an end to the happenings. Hence, despite the kind of improvement that Johnson showed with respect to his condition, the relationship proved to be the tipping point in Anna Stubblefield’s case and resulted in her initial arrest.

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4. The swift jury verdict

While Stubblefield presented a range of arguments to prove her point and maintained that she shared a loving relationship with Derrick Johnson, the trial was decided within a matter of hours. The court, within three hours of discussions, was able to reach a verdict and referred to Johnson’s lack of adulthood and mental capacity to convict Stubblefield.

What’s more, the court also saw the communication between the two as a direct result of Anna Stubblefield’s own projections and claimed that the "messages" in question were not a reflection of Johnson’s actual feelings.

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5. The aftermath

In the years following the conviction, Anna Stubblefield maintains her initial perspective, claiming that she shared a loving relationship with Johnson.

She claims that their relationship was always built on mutual love and understanding, which Johnson’s family didn't accept. Hence, Tell Them You Love Me does not directly revolve around a case of s*xual abuse. Anna Stubblefield ended up serving a 22-month sentence following the trial.

Tell Them You Love Me is currently available to watch on Netflix.