Columbia man acquitted in arson trial files second lawsuit
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Columbia man who was acquitted in two years ago in a felony case has filed another lawsuit against several defendants.
Mehrdad Fotoohighiam was accused of arson. He was acquitted in 2019. He was also acquitted in another case in 2022 where he was accused of conspiring to murder his wife.
Fotoohighiam filed a lawsuit in August against the City of Columbia, Columbia Police Department, Boone County prosecutor, Jennifer Wilson, Scott Christopher, Ali Rastkar and Marcia Green; alleging he was deprived of due process by withholding material and fabricating evidence and violating his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. That lawsuit also alleges wrongful imprisonment.
Fotoohighiam filed a second lawsuit on Friday that alleges jail phone service providers for improperly recorded his calls with his attorneys while he was in jail, and that those recordings were shared with the prosecutor, law enforcement and others.
Defendants in the new lawsuit include Boone County and its commissioners, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, Columbia Police Department, the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office, Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson, St. Charles County Prosecutor’s Office, the Boone County Jail, prosecuting attorney Phillip Groenweghe, Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey, Capt. Jennifer Atwell, three deputies, IC Solutions, LLC, Securus Technologies LLC, CenturyLink Communications LLC, and three other individuals.
