What actually happened:
Lauren Lane flirted with and pursued me for years, ever since she first employed me as a speaker at the first Skepticon in 2008, and every Skepticon thereafter and on occasions in between, until she finally initiated a sexual relationship with me at Skepticon 2012.
An email exchange from April of 2010 clearly shows Lauren Lane encouraging me to discuss my sexual desires with her, and her strongly implying interest in fulfilling them. These emails do not just come from me. They were sent to us on discovery, thus verified for the court by Lane herself, on which I have now highlighted the relevant statements: Defense Bates No. 583 and Defense Bates No. 382 (and these follow over a year of flirting in person across two Skepticons).
An email exchange from October of 2011 clearly shows Lauren Lane seeking a sexual relationship with me. These emails do not just come from me. They were sent to us on discovery, thus verified for the court by Lane herself, on which I have now highlighted the relevant statements: Defense Bates No. 576.
Eyewitnesses have verified in affidavits to the court that at Skepticon 2011 Lane enthusiastically initiated physical affection with me (and not the other way around, and thus clearly not unwanted): Affidavit of Dana [Redacted], and David [Redacted] (Complaint, Par. 81(a)-(c), ref. Exhibits 22 & 23).
Lane herself then initiated a sexual relationship with me—unasked, by simply undressing and jumping into my bed, to my surprise—at Skepticon 2012, as witnessed by two other persons present on the occasion, mutual friends of ours, one her own close friend (I'll call her Kay; not her real name), the other mine (David [Redacted]). Both I am confident will testify honestly to this fact when called upon. One has already provided the court with an affidavit affirming the fact: Affidavit of David [Redacted] (Complaint, Par. 81(a)-(c), ref. Exhibit 22).
I broke up with Lane some months later at the American Atheists conference in 2013, which we both attended. I was distraught over cheating on my wife with her (my wife and I had not yet opened our marriage, of which fact Lane was well aware) and I told Lane I needed to rethink what I was doing. Lane persisted in trying to get me to change my mind, to the point of ignoring my requests that she stop, forcing me to cut off all communications with her.
Nevertheless Lane continued to communicate to my close friend her desire to restart our relationship: Affidavit of David [Redacted], par. 16.
Some months after that I attempted to renew our relationship with a very insensitive Facebook message (jumping straight back into the same pragmatic sexualized banter we'd engaged in when together, rather than producing a more tentative query), which Lane understandably didn't like. I apologized to her for that extensively. This did not occur at Skepticon or any other event. And I've never done anything like it again with anyone.
At the following Skepticon in 2013, Lane asked that we meet to discuss it, at which meeting I reaffirmed my apologies. She nevertheless expressed dislike of my being openly affectionate with other women at that event, even though they were consenting and my relationship with Lane was concluded.
Deeming our relationship concluded even before I arrived at that conference, I did not engage in any affectionate touching of Lane, or any flirtation. I don't recall even hugging her, though I only would have if she initiated it. And I am confident her own friends who were present will confirm this (including Kay, the redacted witness to Lane's initiating a sexual relationship with me in 2012).
An email Lane sent me immediately after Skepticon 2013 verifies that she accepted my apology and did not object to any other behavior of mine than I had already apologized for, which were only objections regarding my manner of relationship communication, not unwanted touching or harassment. This email does not just come from me. It was sent to us on discovery, thus verified for the court by Lane herself: Defense Bates No. 575.
Months later, in March of 2014, Lane personally (and enthusiastically) invited me to speak again at the next Skepticon, wholly incongruous with any belief I had sexually harassed her, or anyone: Defense Bates No. 592.
Skepticon staff were even announcing me to other speakers (including women) as sharing the roster with them as late as April of 2014: Defense Bates No. 454.
Then in June Lane disinvited me from speaking at Skepticon 2014, claiming she wanted to diversify the roster; but she invited me to nevertheless still attend and even run a workshop there. This contradicts any allegation that she regarded me as having sexually harassed her, or anyone, and proves false her public allegation that she disinvited me even partly for that reason—as surely were that so, she would not have still invited me to attend and even run a workshop: Defense Bates No. 598.
I chose not to attend in 2014. But I did go to Skepticon 2015 as a regular attendee. In September of 2015, after I registered to attend, Lane, representing Skepticon, sent me a personal thank you message—identifying me intimately by the nickname "Rick," and saying I "rock" and "see you in November," which is essentially impossible if I had been disinvited even partly for sexual harassment as Lane would later allege in 2016: Defense Bates No. 584.
At Skepticon 2015 I engaged in no physical contact or flirtation with Lane; we met and were in shared group conversations but spoke only briefly and were never even within arm's length of each other. Once again her own friends who were present can confirm this. No mention was ever made of my being unwelcome there or of there having been a claim of sexual harassment against me. No such discussion occurred in official Skepticon internal correspondence either—not during, nor at any time after, that conference (see below).
To the contrary, Kay—the redacted witness to Lane's starting a sexual relationship with me, her close friend—told me that during that very conference Lane told her she approved of Kay starting a relationship with me if she wanted to (and Kay and I discussed that possibility on a walk together). This is incongruous with any belief Lane is supposed to have had that I was a sexual harasser. Kay is an excellent and honest person. If called upon, she will testify to this, as well as to the fact that all my past interactions with Lane (physical and otherwise) were mutually consensual, as witnessed by her directly, and reported to her by Lane.
That was the last Skepticon I attended, and I never saw or spoke to Lane again.
Why this proves their allegations false:
In 2017, upon formal discovery we sought, and received from the Defense, a complete record of all internal correspondence (all email and other messages) that even so much as mention or refer to me (even the completely trivial), from all staff and board members of Skepticon, including Lane, spanning all months of all years, all the way up to and even after Lane's 2016 publication claiming I had been disinvited because of my sexual harassment.
Nowhere in that record is any mention of my being accused of or investigated for sexual harassment, nor of any ruling or concern about my conduct at all.
In fact it is evident from reading the extensive correspondence that no one in those communications is even aware any such complaint had ever been made (the data dump is too large to publish, but consists of Defense Bates Nos. 000196-197, 000254-291, 000295-523, and 000545-607).
We will submit it all to the court if we have to. Because all throughout, there is no mention of an investigation, no mention of a claim, no discussion of why I was disinvited, no discussion of why I was nevertheless asked to attend and run a workshop, no discussion of any concerns over my attending Skepticon in 2015. Nothing whatever. Mentions of me all throughout 2014 are in fact uniformly positive. Eventually I'm no longer discussed at all, until after Lane publishes her allegation against me in 2016. But even after that, their internal correspondence never references any formal complaints, any investigation, any board ruling against me.
This establishes that Lane's public post about me was stating a demonstrable falsehood: I was not disinvited for sexual harassment, I was not investigated for sexual harassment, and no sexual harassment claim was ever formally made against me, nor ever ruled on by the board of directors. Had I even been mentioned in the minutes of any board meeting, the law would have required them to provide it, or explain why they didn't. So that no such documents were turned over, entails there were no such documents to turn over.
Compelling reasons to disbelieve Lane:
The silence of all of Lane's and Skepticon's private correspondence is damning. For Lane & Skepticon wrote to us through counsel the following, which I have highlighted on page 2 of Correspondence from Defense Counsel (cf. Complaint, Pars. 74 and 75, ref. Exhibit 19):
As an initial matter, your allegation that the Post accused Dr. Carrier of having sexually harassed “multiple women,” and that he continued such behavior after he was told it was unwanted, is inaccurate. These allegations are neither contained nor suggested in the Post, which at most mentions “someone involved in Skepticon.” To the extent the Post accuses Dr. Carrier of sexual harassment “towards someone involved in Skepticon,” this is true, and will be proven in court, if necessary. Ms. Lane will testify about the many occasions on which Dr. Carrier made unwanted sexual advances towards her, including but not limited to touching her knees and hugging her without permission; leering at her; asking her inappropriate questions; and making harassing and sexually-charged comments about and towards her.
In other words, they assert that their defamatory post about me did not claim I had harassed anyone other than Lane, and that it did not claim I had continued any behavior after being told it was unwanted. That her publication did not allege these things is debatable. But this is what they are now asserting.
So a conference organizer sexually pursued me for years, initiated a sexual relationship with me to my surprise, and then after I broke up with her and wrote a terrible letter to her to get back together and apologized for that, she unilaterally disinvites me from Skepticon (without any documented communications with or ruling from the board or staff), then years later claims this was because I harassed her. Yet all internal documents show that is false: I was not disinvited for that reason, and I cannot have harassed her. Walk the timeline, from 2010 all the way to 2015, reading all the documents I've posted above: In what year could that have happened?
The documentation and witness affidavits make clear there is no possible way I ever "made unwanted sexual advances towards her," other than asking her to restart our previous relationship, and fully respecting her answer. In other words, asking for and respecting consent. And that wasn't at Skepticon.
To the contrary, the documents show Lane was continuously pursuing me, not the other way around, and enthusiastically consenting to everything. Her only recorded complaint about me was regarding my poor relationship communication choices after our breakup, none of which occurred at Skepticon. And even then, her response was to tell me to keep communicating. The documents likewise indicate no one else running Skepticon was ever aware of any claim I'd done any of the things their letter now alleges—until Lane spontaneously published her suddenly novel allegations as an officer of Skepticon on the Skepticon website in June of 2016, without mentioning her serious conflict of interest, or the lack of any investigation or even a ruling from the board. Skepticon still has made no investigation of her allegations. Despite all the evidence confirming them to be false.
In that same letter through counsel, Lane & Skepticon go on to insist they will present "statements from third parties involved with Skepticon, including Skepticon speakers and attendees, who have also been sexually harassed by Mr. Carrier," yet conspicuously no such statements have been presented to the court after two years. And the Defendants do not appear to have any knowledge of them. Stephanie Zvan wrote on behalf of all the Defendants that "I am familiar with the allegations against Dr. Carrier, including the incidents I reported on in my article" and yet she adduces not a single accusation related to Skepticon other than Lane's (Defendants' Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction 12-01-16, Exhibit 6, Declaration of Stephanie Zvan, Par. 17).
There of course are none.
Conclusion:
The evidence shows I engaged in no misconduct with Lane at Skepticon, violated no policy at Skepticon, and only at worst ineptly asked for consent to restart a previous relationship that she had originally initiated (and had even tried to reinitiate herself several times), and then fully respected her answer. Which interaction also did not happen at Skepticon. Meanwhile, the allegation of other incidents with other people, is nowhere in evidence. Even the Defense's own documents and affidavits indicate there are none.