PHOENIX – An Arizona man once charged in four of metro Phoenix's freeway shootings last summer has filed a lawsuit saying that authorities falsely accused him in the attacks when they knew the evidence tying him to the crime wasn't solid.
Leslie Merritt Jr. filed a lawsuit Tuesday that accuses crime lab workers of assuring detectives that they were 100 percent certain that Merritt's handgun was used in the four shootings.
His lawyers say authorities pursued charges even though they knew his handgun was at a pawn shop at the time of the last of the four shootings.
The charges against Merritt were dismissed after another expert found the Department of Public Safety crime lab reached a faulty conclusion.
Merritt spent seven months in jail before his release in April.
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