Lucas

Lee Lucas hugs a friend outside the federal courthouse after being acquitted on 18 charges In February 2010. Lucas is the target of two lawsuits that were revived by an appeals court Wednesday.

(Joshua Gunter, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- A federal appeals court has revived a pair of civil-rights lawsuits filed by two men who were framed in a Mansfield drug investigation marred by a lying confidential informant and a federal agent believed to have known about those lies.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in an opinion released Wednesday that Joshawa Webb and Herman Price -- two of more than two-dozen defendants charged in "Operation Turnaround" -- can take their malicious prosecution, wrongful arrest and fabrication of evidence claims to trial. The pair blame the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Lee Lucas and others for what they characterized as a bogus arrest.

Webb and Price were arrested and indicted by a grand jury in 2005. Paid informant Jerrell Bray said that he participated in drug deals with the men on separate occasions.

In reality, Bray used stand-ins for Webb and Price, as well as others, in an attempt to eliminate his drug-dealing competition. Lucas knew about this and worked to cover up Bray's misdeeds, according to a federal investigation.

Bray later confessed. Lucas was criminally charged but was acquitted by a jury.

Webb and Price were cleared of their charges and filed suits in 2007 and 2009 against Lucas, the DEA, the Richland County Sheriff's Office and other agencies. U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko dismissed the lawsuits, but appellate Judge Danny Boggs overturned many of Boyko's decisions.

Wednesday's opinion says "neither precedent nor common sense" supports Boyko's assertion that Price cannot show that he was harmed, even if he was supposed to be incarcerated in Michigan in a separate case.

"Under the district court's reasoning, each of these inmates would also have forfeited all of his Fourth Amendment rights regarding false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, and the government would have free rein to frame any of them for any other crime," the opinion says.

The court also decided that there is enough evidence to question whether Lucas and other agents had enough probable cause to prosecute Webb, since there is evidence that Lucas knew of Bray's lies.

However, the court continues, Lucas was with Bray at the controlled buys. He saw the stand-in, which did not resemble Webb. A cop who mistakenly identifies an individual who does not look like the suspect in question is not immune from liability, it writes.

Jon Loevy, Webb and Price's attorney, said he was thrilled with the appeals court's decision.

"These are very serious allegations of law enforcement misconduct that they framed these guys," Loevy. "We're very gratified that the appellate court realizes these guys should go to trial."

Attorneys for Lucas, the DEA and the Sheriff's Office did not immediately return phone calls Wednesday.

The court struck down an attempt to remove Boyko from the case. While Boyko has tried to dismiss the lawsuits several times, the opinion says the judge "has not unequivocally demonstrated such an unwillingness to entertain alternative viewpoints."

Loevy said in response that, "we hope and expect we'll get a fair trial."

Bray's confession led then-U.S. Attorney Greg White to seek the release of 15 people from prison.

Bray died in September 2012 at the age of 40, while he was in the middle of serving more than 13 years in prison for lying during the operation.

Several lawsuits were filed against Lucas and others in the case. Loevy said his clients have the last remaining claims.