Post by Joanna on Jan 13, 2019 17:34:15 GMT -5
Netflix Sued over False Allegations in Making a Murderer
A retired Wisconsin sheriff’s officer involved in the investigation of the murder at the center of the popular Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer is suing its creators and the streaming service. Andrew L. Colborn, formerly of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office, claims the filmmakers distorted and omitted key facts concerning the 2005 murder of freelance photographer Teresa Halbach and falsely accused him and others of planting evidence in the case. Steven Avery and his 16-year-old nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of the murder in 2007.
“Despite overwhelming evidence proving Avery and Dassey’s guilt and the utter absence of evidence supporting defendant’s accusations of police misconduct, defendants falsely led viewers to the inescapable conclusion that plaintiff and others planted evidence to frame Avery for Halbach’s murder,” the complaint charges. “Defendants omitted, distorted and falsified material and significant facts in an effort to portray plaintiff as a corrupt police officer who planted evidence to frame an innocent man.”
Avery’s blood was discovered in Halbach’s vehicle, which was found at the auto salvage yard owned by his family. Avery claims he is innocent and the blood and other evidence were planted to frame him.
Netflix declined to comment on the lawsuit. CNN has reached out to filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. Ricciardi and Demos worked on the 10-part series for years before releasing it on Netflix in December 2015. It won multiple awards, including Emmys for outstanding documentary or nonfiction series, and outstanding writing and direction for nonfiction programming. A sequel was released in October.
Colborn’s lawsuit insists he was not a public figure prior to the series and enjoyed an impeccable reputation. “During the intervening three years, plaintiff has been subject to worldwide ridicule, contempt and disdain as a result of the baseless and false assertions in MAM (Making a Murderer) that he planted evidence to frame an innocent man or strengthen the case against a guilty one,” the lawsuit charges. It is alleged Colborn has been the subject of hundreds of articles, television and radio segments that portray him in a negative light, threatened and insulted on social media, and that he has received threatening messages and recorded enough of them to fill 28 compact discs.
Colborn is requesting a jury trial and demanding a retraction and an “honest clarification of the erroneous and false statements and depictions described above to clear his good name and restore peace of mind.”
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case concerning Dassey’s confession.
Source: David Williams and Chris Boyette, CNN, December 18, 2018.
