$100M civil rights suit filed in Missouri slaying

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- An attorney for a man whose conviction in a Missouri sports editor's slaying was overturned has filed a civil rights lawsuit seeking $100 million.

Kathleen Zellner says police fabricated evidence against Ryan Ferguson in an investigation into the 2001 killing of Kent Heitholt, a Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1h8FFPP ) that Zellner also alleges that the police investigation was incomplete.

The lawsuit, which has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, asks for actual damages of $75 million and compensatory damages of $25 million.

It names 13 defendants, including the City of Columbia, the Columbia Police Department and Boone County.

Zellner has demanded a jury trial.


Information from: Columbia Daily Tribune, http://www.columbiatribune.com