Manitowoc County Sheriff

Steven Avery’s 2007 trial for the murder of Theresa Halbach

Sheriff hits out at critically-acclaimed 10-part Netflix series based on murder conviction that hints his department framed the suspect – saying it’s a ‘skewed’ movie and not a documentary.

The show, which was released on Netflix this week, follows the story of a mechanic convicted of killing a freelance photographer Teresa Halbach.

He was arrested for the slaying just two years after he was released from prison, 18 years after a jury found him guilty of a crime he didn’t commit.

The documentary-makers focus on the idea Avery was set up, after he filed a $36 million civil lawsuit against Manitowoc County, which would have drained them or a large part of their resources.

A quote at the beginning of the first episode sets the tone: ‘Law enforcement despised Steven Avery. Steven Avery was a shining example of their inadequacies, their misconduct.’

Manitowoc County Sheriff Robert Hermann, who joined the department the same year Avery was wrongly convicted of rape, told the Herald Times Reporter his officers would have had no reason to frame an innocent man and the filmmakers have taken the events out of context.

His department, he says, has received a number of negative phone calls and emails, some from other states and overseas. Read more: 

Making a murderer controversy not slowing down

Manitowoc County Sheriff Robert Hermann, Flicker