Jenny Rossman is a lead trial attorney at Herman Law.

Approximately one week after “Call Her Daddy” podcaster Alex Cooper went public with allegations of sexual harassment against Nancy Feldman, her former soccer coach at Boston University, 99 women’s soccer alumni signed a letter in support of Feldman. They wrote that they did not intend to “diminish or discredit anyone’s individual experience,” but that they “categorically never felt unsafe” and felt it was necessary to back Feldman.

As the former head of the sexual assault unit at Orlando’s prosecutor’s office as well as a lawyer in private practice representing victims of sexual abuse, I have some insight into what to make of this reaction by Feldman’s former players.

This type of response from non-victims in support of a beloved leader is both tired and irrelevant. Yet we have seen time and again, when public figures are accused of sexual abuse or harassment, those who had a similar relationship to the alleged perpetrator as the victim did and were not sexually abused or harassed feel compelled to assert their non-victimhood in support of the alleged perpetrator.

They do so as if their healthy relationship with the alleged perpetrator relates in some way to the alleged perpetrator’s unhealthy relationship with the victim, when the former really has nothing to do with the latter. We know, especially in the context of sexual abuse and harassment, that a perpetrator can be a good person to many, while still committing harm against even one.

Cooper did not come forward and accuse Feldman of mistreating anyone other than her — and Feldman’s singling out of Cooper was part of what stood out to her while the harassment was ongoing. The rules of evidence in every jurisdiction of this country contemplate this and prohibit an alleged perpetrator from calling a series of witnesses to testify that they were never abused or harassed. This is precisely because a person’s character — say, their good treatment of 99 players — does not inform a jury as to the person’s actions toward the accuser.

We should come to terms with the fact that people in general are multifaceted: Someone can be a wonderful coach and mentor to many, while also mistreating and hurting one. The former is not relevant to the latter, and the latter does not preclude the former. We should stop making this myopic association, as it is detrimental to victims of sexual abuse and harassment in their already challenging road to coming forward.