Hamilton Township agreed to a $950,000 payment to settle a lawsuit that claimed township police officers fabricated evidence and falsely arrested an 18-year-old, according to his attorney.

That ranks among the larger taxpayer-funded settlements involving police in recent years, which the Asbury Park Press found totaled at least $60 million statewide in the past decade.

As is common, Hamilton Township denied wrongdoing in the settlement. Township police officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Michael Lionelli, now 22, was accused of robbing a Hamilton Township CVS in Mercer County in January 2016. Four criminal charges upended his life and ruined his senior year of high school, though the charges were ultimately dismissed, according to the attorney representing him in his lawsuit against Hamilton Township.

“He wasn’t able to walk in his graduation,” attorney Thomas Mallon said. “He wasn’t able to go to the prom.”

MORE: APP and ProPublica need your help exposing police misconduct

The night of his arrest, police officers in neighboring Lawrence Township stopped Lionelli’s car based on a description of a car involved in the Hamilton Township CVS robbery.

Lionelli admitted he had marijuana and police found a CVS shirt in Lionelli’s car. A charge related to the weed was later dismissed and expunged, according to his attorney.

Officers “gave false and fabricated statements that the CVS robbery victim identified” Lionelli as the suspect, his lawsuit claimed. Two juveniles who were in Lionelli’s car implicated him in the robbery but later said they knew nothing about the robbery and they had been coerced by police, according to the lawsuit.

Investigators found shoe prints at the scene of the robbery. A New Jersey state police analysis determined they didn’t match the shoes Lionelli had on at the time, according to the lawsuit. But the cops didn’t forward that analysis to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, the lawsuit claimed.

Lionelli spent 11 days in jail, according to his attorney, and waited more than two years to clear his name.

In January 2018, the charges against Lionelli related to the robbery were dismissed. He graduated from high school, but his college education was delayed, according to his attorney. He’s now studying to be a physical therapist.

“He’s a nice kid who just got caught up in a bad situation that wouldn’t go away because the institution, the criminal justice system just failed in this case,” Lionelli’s attorney said.

Hamilton Township invoked a recent amendment to New Jersey’s open public records law and declined to immediately provide a reporter with a copy of the near-million dollar settlement with Lionelli. While the town would ordinarily be required to provide immediate access to that document, the change in the law allows records clerks to delay response during a declared state of emergency. Lionelli’s attorney provided a copy of the settlement.

The Asbury Park Press partnered with ProPublica this year to more deeply understand how policing problems persist in New Jersey. Help us expose police misconduct by clicking this link.

Andrew Ford: @AndrewFordNews; 732-643-4281; aford3@gannettnj.com