CONSTANTINE, MI (WTVB) – A former St. Joseph County reserve police officer who wrongfully spent about two years in prison in the 2007 murder of eleven-year-old Jodi Parrack has filed a federal lawsuit against various law enforcement agencies who pursued a case against him.
In his lawsuit, Raymond McCann II claims investigators with the Constantine Police Department, the Michigan State Police, and the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s office fabricated evidence and pushed him to confess to the murder. McCann also says they pursued him as a suspect without probable cause. He is seeking damages and attorney fees.
McCann pled no contest to perjury to get a shorter sentence. He was later exonerated and awarded $40,000 after the real killer was found. Daniel Furlong admitted in 2015 to killing Parrack.
The perjury conviction for McCann was reversed after a review of evidence showed police may have either lied or were wrong about a key piece of evidence against him.
McCann was set free with the help of the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction and the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan. Clinic Director David Moran said two years ago the investigation into alleged perjury by McCann was botched.
(reporting from Jim Measel)
