DNA Cleared Him. Now He's Suing After 129 Days in Jail

Xavier Davis says he told cops after his arrest for sexual assault: 'You have the wrong person'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 19, 2018 9:18 AM CDT
DNA Cleared Him. Now He's Suing After 129 Days in Jail
DNA evidence cleared Xavier Davis, and now he's suing.   (Getty Images/Kyryl Gorlov)

"For whatever reason, they decided Xavier Davis was the guy." That from the lawyer for 31-year-old Davis, arrested in January as the suspect in a sexual assault in Grand Rapids, Mich. The problem: DNA evidence and Uber and phone records showed Davis wasn't the guy, and charges against him were dropped in July, per MLive.com. Before that, though, he was in prison for 129 days, then attached to an e-tether for two months, and now he's suing the City of Grand Rapids and three cops for false imprisonment and defamation, among other allegations, per WOOD. "I'm telling them, 'You have the wrong person,'" Davis says of his arrest, which he says was based on a sketch that doesn't even look like him; WZZM has a picture of it. It gets a bit complicated: Davis was already under investigation for a burglary and arson when he was arrested for the rape of a woman in her car in late December.

At his January arraignment, Davis—who was sent to prison for more than a year in 2012 for a home invasion and also has been convicted of window peeping—was then charged with another sexual assault at his workplace, though his lawyer says he started working there after the assault report. In both cases, Davis contends police led the victims to believe he was their attacker, and that even after the DNA and other evidence started to surface in February showing he wasn't in the car case, he was still incarcerated for months. He also says his face and name were plastered everywhere after his arrest, and he lost his two jobs and was evicted from his home after he got out of jail, per WOOD. He said he told cops during his initial questioning: "You guys are gonna be sued after this if you don't fix this." Charges in both cases were dropped, and WOOD notes Davis has since secured a new job and place to live. (Cops hope DNA will lead them to the Zodiac Killer.)

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