NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - Netflix ( NFLX ) has

settled a defamation lawsuit brought by best-selling author and

former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein over her portrayal

in a 2019 crime drama about the Central Park Five case, its

lawyers said on Tuesday.

A trial over Fairstein's portrayal in the series, "When They

See Us," had been set to begin next week in Manhattan federal

court.

Netflix ( NFLX ) said as part of the settlement, it would donate $1

million to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to free

wrongfully convicted people. It said Fairstein would not receive

money as part of the settlement.

The series dramatized the story of five Black and Hispanic

teenagers who spent five to 13 years in prison after being

wrongfully convicted in the April 1989 rape of a white jogger in

Central Park. Another man confessed in 2002.

Fairstein, 77, had been running the Manhattan District

Attorney's office sex crimes unit when the 28-year-old jogger,

later identified as Trisha Meili, was attacked.

She alleged defamatory scenes in the series included

suggestions she withheld evidence, coerced confessions, and

ordered a mass police roundup of young Black men.