A settlement was reached in a lawsuit that James Woods brought against a man who allegedly defamed the actor on Twitter by accusing him of being a drug user, a courtroom clerk said Monday.
The clerk for Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mel Red Recana said an attorney for Woods announced the resolution in the case during a brief hearing, but no terms were divulged.
The defendant was identified in court papers only as “Abe List” and “AL” and died last August. Woods’ lawyers obtained his true name through a court order in January and were exploring the possibility of continuing the case against his estate when the settlement was reached.
Woods filed suit in July 2015, saying the defendant’s allegations on Twitter that the actor used cocaine were false and hurt his reputation, built during a Hollywood career spanning more than four decades.
“I have not now, nor have ever been, a coke fiend or cocaine addict,” the Oscar-nominated actor stated in a sworn declaration. “In fact, I have never done cocaine.”
Woods also denied a separate accusation, allegedly made by a second person, that he is a sex offender.
Woods, 70, says the false statements have “jeopardized my good name and reputation on an international scale.”
In February 2016, the defendant’s attorneys argued in a motion to dismiss the case that Woods’ lawsuit was “a petulant abuse of the judicial system to punish and suppress speech that upsets him.” Judge Mel Red Recana denied the motion and a defense appeal of the ruling was later dropped after the defendant died.
