White men cleared in alleged dragging death of black man sue Texas investigators, prosecutor
By Jeff Carlton, APThursday, January 28, 2010
Ex-suspects in alleged dragging death file lawsuit
DALLAS — Two white suspects cleared in the death of a black man who was allegedly dragged beneath a vehicle are suing the Texas officials who kept them jailed for more than eight months.
The federal lawsuit filed this week seeks at least $4 million for Shannon Finley and Ryan Crostley, once the main suspects in the 2008 death of their friend, Brandon McClelland.
Authorities accused the men of running down the 24-year-old and dragging his body as far as 70 feet beneath a pickup truck. But murder charges were eventually dropped because of a lack of evidence.
A gravel truck driver gave a sworn statement that he might have accidentally run over McClelland.
McClelland’s gruesome death touched off protests that brought hundreds of demonstrators to Paris, about 90 miles northeast of Dallas.
