Exonerated Mother Who Spent 17 Years In Prison Sues LA
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A mother of three who spent 17 years in prison for murder before she was exonerated is suing Los Angeles.
City News Service says Susan Mellen and her children filed the federal civil rights suit on Wednesday.
Mellen, who's 59, was convicted in 1998 of killing a homeless man in Lawndale. She was freed last fall by a judge who said she was innocent and had been convicted on the word of a habitual liar.
Mellen's lawsuit contends that an LAPD detective and her supervisor conspired to deprive Mellen of her civil rights. It says the detective knew the woman who claimed to have heard Mellen confess wasn't credible.
Messages to the LAPD seeking comment weren't immediately returned.
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