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Man Sues Denver Police After DNA Mix-Up Leads To Jail Time

DENVER (AP) — A man is suing Denver police after he was wrongly jailed for two months in a sexual assault case because of a DNA mistake.

Shawnnon Hale, 26, said in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that crime lab technicians violated his rights when they improperly identified his DNA as being tied to a July 2014 rape, The Denver Post reported . Prosecutors eventually dismissed charges against Hale after a later test found his DNA was at the scene but not linked the crime. But that decision did not come before Hale had spent 61 days in jail as a result of the faulty evidence, the lawsuit says.

Denver police referred requests for comment Wednesday to the city attorney's office, which did not immediately return a call for comment. The district attorney's office has described the mistake as a clerical error.

Hale seeks damages as well as a written apology.

He says at least one of the technicians in Denver's crime lab switched DNA taken from a cigarette Hale had smoked with that taken from a man who had sex with the victim.

The woman told police she was walking her dog when she met a stranger and had a few drinks with him at a bar. She said she then invited the man and his friends, including Hale, to have drinks with her at her apartment. She said she woke up with no recollection of what happened, according to the lawsuit.

Five months after the attack, in December 2014, detectives arrested Hale, and prosecutors charged him with sexual assault. A judge in February 2015 found sufficient evidence to proceed to trial, but the case was dismissed two days later after police revealed the evidence had been mislabeled.

(© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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