For the first time, victims of opioid addiction and families who lost loved ones to OxyContin addiction were able to directly confront members of the Sackler family, whose pharmaceutical company was responsible for a crisis that has cost at least 500,000 American lives.

In three hours of emotional testimony on Thursday, 26 speakers from 19 different states spoke in court before David, Theresa and Richard Sackler. The testimony occurred during a bankruptcy hearing for Purdue Pharma , the company that made the Sackler family rich by producing OxyContin.

The Sacklers who attended via video, though Richard Sackler never turned his camera on to show his face were not allowed to respond to the victims, according to Judge Robert Drain.

Its nice to finally see the Sacklers face-to-face, said artist and activist Nan Goldin, who became addicted to painkillers after a wrist injury and staged a widely publicized demonstration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2018 to demand the institution remove the Sackler familys name from one of its wings . The family had discussed in a family group chat at the time how to handle Goldins activism, calling her crazy.

Goldin said during her testimony Thursday that the Justice Department should pursue criminal charges .