A federal judge last month refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by retired Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office Lt. Andrew Colborn against Netflix and the filmmakers who created the docuseries "Making a Murderer."

Colborn was featured in Netflix's "Making a Murderer," which tells the story of the homicide cases against Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, who are both serving life in prison for the 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach.

The docuseries cast doubt on the motives of police investigating Halbach's death and left many viewers with the impression that Avery and Dassey were wrongfully convicted. Colborn's lawsuit claims the docuseries defamed him and "falsely led viewers to the inescapable conclusion" that Colborn and other police planted evidence to frame Avery for Halbach's murder.

In May, Netflix asked a judge to dismiss Colborn's lawsuit, at least with respect to Netflix, claiming that he "has not plausibly alleged" that Netflix was negligent in distributing the docuseries.

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Lee Levine, an attorney for Netflix, argued at a Dec. 19 hearing that Colborn's allegations weren't specific to Netflix, but instead had been generally directed at all of the defendants, which also include filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos and their independent production company Chrome Media.

Netflix was responsible for distributing the docuseries but wasn't responsible for reviewing court documents or other aspects of the film's production, Friedman said.

George Burnett, an attorney for Colborn, argued that the defendants collaborated to produce a docuseries that "was misleading and deceptive" and "came close to destroying" Colborn's life.

“There were plenty of warning signs for Netflix to take heed of,” he said.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper declined to dismiss the lawsuit, citing arguments from an amended complaint proposed by Colborn's attorneys that contains specific allegations against Netflix, rather than against all of the defendants lumped together.

"Making a Murderer" debuted Dec. 18, 2015, while "Making a Murderer Part 2" was released on Oct. 19, 2018.

Contact Chris Mueller at 920-996-7267 or cmueller@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AtChrisMueller.