(CN) — A federal judge ruled Friday that Netflix can’t dodge claims of defamation and emotional distress from Fiona Harvey, a Scottish woman who says she is the inspiration for the stalker in the streaming giant’s hit show “Baby Reindeer.”
Despite Netflix’s claims that the story in “Baby Reindeer” of an aspiring standup comedian dealing with a sexual assault by a mentor while being obsessively stalked by “Martha” is merely a fictional depiction of the real life experiences of show creator Richard Gadd, Harvey says Gadd’s and Netflix’s efforts to protect her anonymity weren’t enough.
U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner denied Netflix’s attempt to sidestep the defamation claims by using anti-SLAPP law — a legal maneuver designed to allow defendants to quickly dismiss lawsuits based on public interest — writing that Harvey has a likelihood of prevailing on the merits of her claims that she never stalked Gadd.
While Netflix claims that any reasonable person would be able to differentiate between Harvey and the character of Martha, Klausner disagreed in a 18-page ruling.
“This is not the typical case where a plaintiff happens to be one of hundreds of people that match a fictional character’s broad characteristics,” Klausner wrote. “While there may be numerous Scottish lawyers living in London of the same approximate age as plaintiff, it is very likely that only plaintiff has been accused of stalking a lawyer in a newspaper article while also communicating with Gadd on social media.”
Klausner added that Netflix could not offer any contradicting evidence when the fact was brought up that Harvey had already received numerous comments on her social media pages referencing the show.
Show creator Richard Gadd — who based the series off of his own experiences as an aspiring stand-up comedian being stalked by a woman he met in a pub — has said that he took precautions in the making of the series to disguise the real-life identities of the characters, including changing names and rewriting the story.
Netflix also filed a statement in court, stating that while “Baby Reindeer” “is inspired by Gadd’s real-life trauma and emotions, the characters, scenes, dialogue and events convey Gadd’s story in an imaginative style.”
However, Klausner noted that Netflix insisted Gadd include a line saying “this is a true story” line at the beginning of each episode of the series, despite the comedian’s concerns. The series was adapted from Gadd’s monologue on the same events, but the comedian stated there that it was instead “based on a true story.”
“This suggests a reckless disregard of whether statements in the series were false, and thus, actual malice,” Klausner says.
While Klausner did agree to dismiss Harvey’s other claims of negligence and right of publicity, the judge also allowed her claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress to survive.
“The series states that plaintiff is a convicted criminal who sexually and violently assaulted Gadd,” Klausner says, adding that this could be considered extreme and outrageous conduct. In the complaint, Harvey states that she suffered harm before she revealed her identity as the inspiration for Martha, and has since suffered from anxiety, nightmares, panic attacks and other ailments.
Harvey revealed her identity as “Martha” on Facebook two weeks after the show’s airing. In her complaint, Harvey notes similarities between herself and the show’s antagonist, such as being a Scottish lawyer in London who is twenty years Gadd’s senior, and bearing “an uncanny resemblance to ‘Martha.’”
Harvey denies ever having stalked Gadd, ever having waited at a bus stop outside Gadd’s residence for 15 hours a day, as Martha does in the show, and ever having physically attacked Gadd, as Martha does in the show.
Harvey’s accusations against Netflix came in early June, just two months after the release of the seven-episode limited hit series.
Gadd is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Instead, Harvey targets Netflix, a publicly traded company, which she says failed to do any due diligence before claiming the show was based on a true story.