Although officials often can claim sovereign immunity from lawsuits for official actions, the suit says that “(f)alsification of evidence and related dishonest practices disqualify police” from such a claim.

Askey can be sued, it reasons, because she acted as an investigator to “develop probable cause” to charge Faria.

ALIBI IGNORED

The suit says phone records indicate that Betsy Faria was alive and with a friend, Pamela Hupp, at the Faria home outside Troy, Mo., at 7:05 p.m., when a voicemail was left for Hupp’s husband. Betsy Faria’s daughter was unable to reach her in a series of callS beginning at 7:21 p.m.

A call by Hupp to Betsy Faria at 7:25 p.m. also went unanswered.

Russell Faria was at a friend’s house at the time and returned home shortly before 9:40 p.m., when he called 911, the suit says. Store surveillance cameras and receipts documented his travel to and from his friend’s house.

Betsy Faria had been dead for at least an hour, the suit says.

The suit says that Askey and investigators ignored their own investigation and interviews, including statements by alibi witnesses that made it impossible for Faria to be the killer.