Arrested. Charged. Incarcerated.

No investigation. No corroboration. No conclusive evidence other than a traumatized eyewitness.

Welcome to the nightmare that keeps Charles and Patricia Geiger awake at night.

Eight Cleveland police officers showed up on the couple's Lakewood doorstep at 12:30 a.m. March 2, accusing Charles Geiger of injuring an off-duty cop in a hit-and-run at a downtown garage. Geiger assured them that he was at a local Lakewood restaurant with his daughter at the time of the incident. The daughter produced a receipt as proof. The police dismissed it. They put Geiger in a spotlight on the front lawn where the injured officer identified him from the back seat of a cruiser.

Geiger was arrested. His wife, Patricia, was identified as his passenger. Patricia told the officers she was driving the couple's vehicle. She and six friends had attended a show at Playhouse Square. Her husband was not present. Patricia said she used a different exit from the garage than the one where the officer was struck. She was arrested on suspicion of obstructing justice. A male officer remained in the room with Patricia as she changed out of her pajamas. He had the decency to turn his back.

The Geigers spent 20 hours behind bars at the Justice Center. Patricia was not charged. Her husband was. He posted a $500 bond.

Their attorney provided police with the restaurant receipt, a video of Charles Geiger in the restaurant and signed affidavits from restaurant staff and the women who were with Patricia Geiger that night. Charges were dropped March 18.

That was that. No apology. No satisfactory explanation for the errors. No assurances that Cleveland officials were doing everything possible to address the procedural flaws and police overreach in the case, to protect others in similar circumstances -- those, perhaps, without the resources the Geigers had to hire a lawyer and assemble the evidence of their whereabouts and actions that night.

The Geigers -- who have never run afoul of the law except for a speeding ticket Charles says he received some 20 years ago -- received their first phone call from the city on Friday morning, nearly a month after charges were dropped. A police lieutenant told Charles Geiger he was investigating the "unfortunate events."

"I take what happened very seriously," Cleveland Police Chief Mike McGrath told a Plain Dealer editorial writer. "If we were wrong, we were wrong. And we will hold our officers accountable."

The Geigers received their second phone call at 12:30 p.m. It was from Mayor Frank Jackson, who expressed his regrets.

The real culprit, meanwhile, remains at large.