SACRAMENTO, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Sacramento County, Calif., agreed to pay $400,000 to two men whose drug convictions were thrown out when a recording of a 2008 undercover operation surfaced.

The Sacramento Bee said Sunday the payout settles a civil rights lawsuit filed by John Pruitt and Darryl Berg, who were facing stiff prison terms in a methamphetamine case.


Pruitt's four sons will receive $2,500 apiece for their separation from their father, the documents said. The rest will be divided among Pruitt, Berg and their attorneys.

The charges were dismissed by a federal judge two weeks before their trial was to begin in 2009 when a recording surfaced of a meeting between a sheriff's detective and a street dealer who had reputedly named the two men as her traffickers.

The Bee said detectives initially denied the recording existed when it was requested by the defense.