A Bronx student who was arrested and imprisoned for 40 hours by the NYPD for a crime his friend had confessed to doing is filing a $1 million lawsuit against the city. Bryan Dale, 19, says he had to spend 20 months in courtrooms trying to clear his name for breaking a car windshield with a rock, while his friend was never prosecuted despite his admission. "The NYPD and district attorney basically decided to pretend the confession by the guilty party didn't exist. It really defies common sense," said Neil Wollerstein, Dale's attorney.

Dale is suing for false arrest, malicious prosecution and civil rights violations for the 2009 incident. In July of that year, he says he was hanging out with friends late one night along Riverdale Avenue in the Bronx when one of the friends threw the rock at the car—the friend was angry about a car's owner dating his sister. The teens scattered, but police arrived shortly, and picked up Dale. "About 30 minutes later, the boy who broke the windshield came into the precinct with his mother and confessed," Dale told ABC.

Not only that: the teen wrote out a written and signed confession saying he smashed the window because the car's owner was going out with his sister. At first, both Dale and the friend were moved to Bronx Central Booking; but the friend was let out and not prosecuted, while police allegedly pressured Dale to take a plea deal for a crime he didn't commit, which he refused. Instead he was officially charged with criminal mischief. Dale says he had to go to monthly court dates for nearly two years before a judge acquitted him: "I had to go to court like some criminal. I was embarrassed in front of my professors and my boss when I had to miss tests and work days."

In a statement to ABC, the Bronx DA's office said they went forward with the case because "the owner of the car knew Bryan's name and identified him, even though someone else took responsibility."