Cain Storey, who was freed two years ago for the shooting of 15-year-old Brian Bowling, said in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that Floyd County detectives fabricated evidence, coerced false testimony from witnesses, and hid sexual liaisons with key figures in the case to stitch up Storey and his friend Darrell "Lee" Clark.
"Defendants' fabrication of false inculpatory evidence directly and proximately caused plaintiff's wrongful arrest, conviction, and deprivation of liberty without due process of law for over 26 years, as well as the physical, emotional, psychological, and pecuniary injuries described in this complaint and to be proved through discovery and at trial," Storey said.
The two men were convicted in 1998 of Bowling's murder and stayed in prison on life sentences until podcasters Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis of the investigative true crime podcast "Proof" uncovered evidence suggesting the men were innocent. Storey and Clark were freed in December 2022 after their murder convictions were tossed, according to the Georgia Innocence Project, which worked on the case on the men's behalf.
Storey on Thursday said that he wants damages from the county, its former coroner, and police officers for framing him. Clark, for his part, filed a similar suit last month.
"Floyd County was aware of a widespread pattern of similar constitutional violations by untrained and unsupervised employees of the [Floyd County Police Department] and remained deliberately indifferent to the need to train and supervise those employees," he added.
Bowling, according to the suit, died on the night of Oct. 18, 1996, as a result of an accidental gunshot wound. Storey, who was 17 at the time, said that he brought his father's revolver over to Bowling's house, and the two boys began playing with it.
Bowling, who was on the phone with his girlfriend at the time, then loaded the gun, spun the chamber, pointed the gun at his head, and fired, killing himself.
After police responded to the scene, Detective Dallas Battle, who would lead the investigation, questioned Storey and Bowling's girlfriend. After conducting what Storey called an "inept and incompetent" crime scene investigation, Battle and his partner David Stewart allegedly began concocting a narrative that Storey had deliberately murdered Bowling.
Battle and Stewart's theory, according to the suit, was that Storey and Clark had been members of a gang called the Free Birds, and planned Bowling's execution for snitching on them about a supposed earlier crime.
To support this bogus narrative, Storey said, the officers ordered the exhuming of Bowling's casket, in which his friends had left a note wishing him well. Battle, who is now deceased, allegedly added the word "narcs," referring to snitches, to the note, and then drew a line through it to suggest the accident had in fact been a revenge killing.
As the investigation continued, Storey said Battle and Stewart allegedly pressured Angela Bruce, a single mother, to testify that she'd heard Storey boasting of having shot Bowling. They threatened Bruce that her children could be taken from her if she refused to cooperate, according to the suit, and Battle later coerced her into a sexual relationship with him.
Similarly, the officers are said to have secured false testimony from a hearing-impaired and nearly illiterate man that further implicated Storey and Clark. And the county coroner — who did not hold a medical license — reportedly conducted a sham examination of Bowling's body and later billed the boy's family $7,000 for an autopsy that was never actually done, per the complaint.
This evidence and more, Storey said, was uncovered by podcasters Simpson and Davis, leading the two men to eventually file extraordinary motions for a new trial that resulted in their release two years ago.
Alleging a slew of damages, Storey's suit names Floyd County former coroner Craig Burnes, former Floyd County police officers David Stewart and Mark Wallace, who reportedly also worked on the case, and the executor of Battle's will as defendants.
Counsel for Storey didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Floyd County and the other defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.
Storey is represented by Sam Starks of the Starks Law Firm and Wolfgang Mueller of the Mueller Law Firm.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available.
The case is Storey v. Floyd County et al., case number 4:24-cv-00288, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
--Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.
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