A Kentucky man is suing Netflix for using his image without permission in a documentary about a murderer.
in the meantime Hitchhiker wielding a hatcheta 2023 Netflix documentary about viral internet star Caleb McGilvery, who was convicted of murder in 2019, where the narrator asks, “Is this a guardian angel or a stone-cold killer?” also displays the text “I can’t trust anyone”.
Hazelwood, 27, who works as a respiratory therapist in the neonatal ICU, has nothing to do with McGilvery, but according to the lawsuit he filed, Netflix used the photos without permission. In June 2019, Hazelwood took a photo with his friend Hatchet and posted it on Instagram.
Netflix released the documentary on January 12, and on January 20, a friend told Hazelwood that he had seen his photo used in the documentary. More than 20 Hazlewood friends and acquaintances then contacted him about his photos in the documentary, and according to the lawsuit, he experienced “reputational harm, stress, anxiety and distress.”
Hazlewood’s attorney, Angela Buchanan, told BuzzFeed News that her client was “a secretive, quiet man who led to Caleb McGilverry’s rise to fame and subsequent first-degree murder conviction.” , Hazelwood said, “I had nothing to do with the people or events depicted in the film.”
Buchanan said Netflix and the production companies they depend on should be held accountable if they were negligent and caused this kind of reputational damage.
