Homeless in Arizona

I suspect the only reason this government abuse by police and prosecutors got caught is because this case was such a high profile case and was in the newspapers for months.

I was almost framed by the Arizona DPS, which is the same group of police criminals that tried to frame Leslie Merritt Jr.

They tried to frame me for sales of LSD.

I was arrested in a state wide drug bust, 6 months after the date they accused me of selling LSD to two narcs at Papago Park. So I wasn't arrested with any drugs, or in the process of selling them.

It was the narc's word against mine. And of course 6 months AFTER the alleged sale occurred.

I never went to trial on it, and I lucked out and got the charges dropped several years later. I suspect if I had went to trial I would have been framed and sent to prison. At the time sales of LSD was punishable with 10 years in prison.

At the time I was dumb enough to think I could get a fair trial. I didn't know back then that the system was and is corrupt to the core and I would have been railed to prison.

I thought it was a case of mistaken identity and that a person that looked like me sold the acid to the narcs.

Well thought that for 10 years until I got fired from my job because of the false arrest. My boss discovered that the DPS narcs intentionally framed me because they thought I was selling LSD.

It's a long, long story. But I wrote a bunch of software for the Arizona House of Representatives when I was a student at ASU. The Arizona Attorney General and the Arizona DPS took over the project. I was fired by them because of the arrest.

My was Dr Jim Johnson, who was a professor at ASU but ended up taking a job with the attorney general. He talked to the narcs who arrested my and both of them admitted that they framed me.

My boss complained to his boss, Steve Twist who was the assistant Arizona Attorney General, and then to Bob Corbin who was the Arizona Attorney General. Neither of them did anything despite the DPS pigs admitting they framed me.

Of course for me it was good in the long run because government doesn't pay sh*t compared to the private sector. And I learned that government is corrupt to the core.

And for the record I have never sold LSD in the state of Arizona.

Source

Former freeway shooting suspect Leslie Merritt Jr. sues state, Maricopa County

Megan Cassidy, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:09 p.m. MST September 14, 2016

The man who was jailed for seven months in connection with a string of Phoenix freeway shootings last year has filed a lawsuit against state officials, adding a new chapter to an embarrassing saga for police and prosecutors.

Leslie Allen Merritt, 22, was released from custody in April after a ballistics expert challenged the evidence that led to his arrest. Maricopa County prosecutors called for the case to be dismissed shortly thereafter.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, alleges false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and aiding and abetting tortious conduct. It names the state of Arizona, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and Maricopa County as defendants, as well as various John and Jane Does.

"This is not a case against police," Merritt's attorney David Don told reporters Wednesday afternoon at a news conference in downtown Phoenix. "This is a case against poor police work."

Merritt was the only suspect named after a series of shootings that caused panic on Phoenix-area freeways in August and September 2015. Citing reports from the DPS Crime Lab, Arizona Department of Public Safety officials said his pistol could be traced to bullets found at four of the 11 freeway crime scenes.

The suit alleges that Merritt's arrest was the result of slapdash police work and a rush to judgment in the face of public pressure.

Notably, the lawsuit does not name Gov. Doug Ducey, who was included with the other defendants when Merritt served a notice of claim in March.

Ducey stepped into the fray moments after Merritt's arrest, tweeting "We got him!" to his followers. The tweet drew immediate criticism from those who said Ducey had implied that Merritt was guilty.

On Wednesday, Merritt's attorney Jason Lamm explained the decision to exclude Ducey from the suit.

“Millions of dollars, taxpayer dollars, have been spent on the botched investigation, the wrongful arrest and the malicious prosecution," he said. "We just don’t think it’s appropriate for the taxpayers to have to foot the bill for basically what amounts to a split-second error in judgment.”

Merritt’s notice of claim asked for $10 million, but Tuesday’s lawsuit does not name a specific dollar figure in damages.

The lawsuit walks through a timeline of the case, highlighting missteps.

Shortly after the shootings began, investigators tapped the state crime lab to try and identify the type of gun that had fired bullets from four of the crime scenes.

Days later, they had their answer. It was a Hi-Point, 9mm C9 handgun, the crime lab reported — a model with about 286,000 firearms in circulation.

It was a rookie detective who suggested using a pawn shop database to see if there had been any recent sales of this model.

“If you want to buy a lottery ticket … go ahead,” his sergeant responded, according to the lawsuit.

The detective tried his luck. On Sept. 17, 2015, he trekked to various local shops, including Mo Money Pawn in Phoenix. It was here that he collected a Hi-Point, 9mm C9 that had been sold by Merritt on Aug. 30, 2015.

At the time, it seemed the detective had hit the investigative jackpot. Criminalists who analyzed the four crime-scene bullets said with “100 percent certainty” they were all fired from Merritt’s gun, according to the lawsuit.

Detectives soon learned there was a snag in this theory. According to pawn-shop records, Merritt had sold his gun at 5:31 p.m. Aug. 30. The final shooting occurred four hours later.

“In other words, DPS recognized that only one of two scenarios could be true,” the lawsuit states. Either "a) the crime lab had botched its identification or b) Incident D did not occur when Merritt’s gun was at the pawn shop.”

DPS officials chose the latter and adjusted their timeline. They alleged that the shots had actually been fired days earlier but had gone unnoticed because of the vehicle’s durable tires.

Merritt was arrested on Sept. 18, 2015, and remained jailed until April 19.

The suit contends the DPS crime lab used "flawed methodology" and that DPS officials knew Merritt's gun couldn't have been involved in one of the shootings but tweaked the timeline to fit their theory.

Merritt’s attorneys allege prosecutors intentionally misled the grand jury by asserting that the shots had been fired days beforehand.

Earlier this year, an independent ballistics expert hired by prosecutors said his results could not tie Merritt's gun to the bullets, nor could the evidence exclude it.

As a result of his false arrest, the lawsuit claims, Merritt suffered "severe physical pain, mental anguish, emotional distress, medical expenses and lost wages."

Public officials say little in response to lawsuit

DPS officials declined to comment Wednesday, citing pending litigation.

At his scheduled news conference Wednesday, Montgomery said he wasn't surprised by the lawsuit.

“It’s an active case now in litigation, and I think I’m named in it," he said. "There’s not much more I can say other than I’m aware of it and we’ll handle it as we go forward."

The charges against Merritt were dismissed without prejudice, leaving open a window for prosecutors to refile charges in the future. The County Attorney's Office has seven years to decide whether charges would be refiled against Merritt.

Montgomery on Wednesday said he wasn't aware of the current status of the investigation.

"I haven’t asked for an update in a few weeks," he said. "There are a number of things still going from an evidentiary review and analysis standpoint, so I’m letting those folks do their job and handle that.”

In August, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Warren Granville ruled that Merritt would not get his gun back for now.

Includes information from Republic reporter Garrett Mitchell.