GRAND FORKS — The attorney for a Colorado man suing the Grand Forks Police Department for wrongful arrest described the case as "extraordinarily rare.”
In the lawsuit filed Oct. 8, Deryck Middleton alleged that he was wrongfully arrested and charged with Class B felony luring minors by computers or other electronic means.
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“I’ve been a criminal attorney for 23 years and the number of … completely wrong arrests on a serious case like this I’ve seen can probably be counted on one hand,” said Jacob Lilly, Middleton’s attorney.
Lilly, a criminal and civil attorney in Colorado, described his initial reaction to the case as disbelief. He said he gets a lot of clients who tell him they have “no idea what (police) are talking about,” and he’s learned to take it with a grain of salt.
“The more I dug, the more I was like, I think (Middleton) doesn’t know,” Lilly said.
The lawsuit alleges Middleton’s arrest started with a typographical error made by Cpl. Jennifer Freeman of the Grand Forks Police Department. She was investigating inappropriate chats reported by a school in Grand Forks between a 13-year-old and an 18-year-old from Michigan named Vincent.
According to the lawsuit, ...