One of five women who accused Robert Knepper of sexual assault settled her defamation lawsuit against the “iZombie” actor, her attorney said Tuesday.
Plaintiff Susan Bertram sued Knepper in Los Angeles Superior Court in February 2018, alleging he maligned her on his Instagram account in November 2017 when he said, “I am shocked and devastated to be accused of violence against a woman. That’s just not who I am.”
Bertram’s lawyer, J. Bernard Alexander III, said his client’s case was resolved, but he did not divulge any terms.
Bertram is a costume supervisor who has worked in Hollywood for more than 30 years. Her first sexual abuse allegation against Knepper dated to 1991, when she alleged the actor assaulted her during filming of the film “Gas Food Lodging.”
In October 2016, after seeing an “Access Hollywood” story about accusations by women alleging inappropriate behavior by former President Donald Trump, Bertram posted on Facebook that she was the victim of such an attack many years earlier, according to her court papers. She said she later named Knepper as her alleged assailant in an interview for an article in the Hollywood Reporter.
In their court papers, Knepper’s lawyers deny he defamed Bertram.
“Knepper simply made a generalized denial of any accusation,” the 61-year-old actor’s lawyers stated in their court papers. `Knepper did so in a respectful and tactful manner. He did not disparage plaintiff or call her names. He did not accuse plaintiff of lying, fabricating her story or being untrustworthy.”
Knepper also played the role of Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell on the Fox show “Prison Break.”