Man Sues Police For 'Wrongful' Luring Arrest
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - A man has sued the Stowe Township Police Department alleging he was wrongfully arrested on a child-luring charge even though he and his vehicle - and its license plate number - didn't match the description initially given by the victim.
"Very painful, a lot of stress, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of anxiety," Andrews, the plaintiff, said describing the last year of his life. "I felt sick to my stomach. I literally thought that I would never get to see my kids."
Andrews, 52, of Beaver Falls, says a 15-year-old who wrongfully accused him of trying to lure her into his car, randomly grabbed his license plate and identified his car while driving around town with her mom.
He was charged last November by Stowe Township Police.
When he was acquitted at trial, attorneys proved she lied about the original license she gave police; she lied about her description of Andrews.
It turns out; she had allegedly done it before.
"I go to bed at night, I wake up in the middle of the night, I think about it all the time during the days. I don't know if… what the circumstances were, why the girl picked my car out," said Andrews.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, attorneys say Stowe Township Police "distorted, withheld, misrepresented, and otherwise participated in the presentation of false evidence to support such charges."
"One of the reasons we filed this lawsuit is because what happened here is inexplicable," said attorney Tim O'Brien.
O'Brien say Stowe Township Police went out of their way to cover up and lie about a license plate on his client's car that would have cleared him.
He says don't blame this on the 15-year-old making false accusations.
"This case is about the law enforcement officials who were the adults in the room and should have stopped this case in its tracks," said O'Brien.
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