An attorney for a man whose conviction in a Missouri sports editor's slaying was overturned has filed a civil rights lawsuit seeking $100 million.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that Kathleen Zellner alleges fabricated evidence in Ryan Ferguson's case and a lack of a complete police investigation into the 2001 killing of Kent Heitholt, among other things. Heitholt was a Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor.
The lawsuit is filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The newspaper reports that the suit asks for actual damages of $75 million and compensatory damages of $25 million.
The Tribune reports that Zellner also demands a jury trial and names a total of 13 defendants, including the City of Columbia, the Columbia Police Department and Boone County.
