Marvin Haynes files wrongful conviction lawsuit against city of Minneapolis and five police officers

Marvin Haynes filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday against the city of Minneapolis and five police officers who investigated the 2004 homicide for which he was wrongfully convicted.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for a wrongful conviction, alleging police used fabricated and coerced statements from “vulnerable” teens to implicate Haynes, then 16, in the shooting death of a flower shop worker.

“The complaint we filed today tells my story — one I’ve been telling since I was arrested in 2004,” said Haynes, who is now 37 and was released from prison in December 2023 after his exoneration. “I’m grateful that people are now listening, but it is devastating that it took so long for the truth to come out. My life was destroyed by the officers who wrongly chose to fabricate a case against me, and I have a long road in front of me to heal.”

The five officers named in the lawsuit, who either led, assisted or supervised the investigation against Haynes, are David Mattson, Michael Keefe, Patrick King, Gerhard Wehr and Michael Carlson.

A city spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday.

In 2004, after a robber shot and killed Randy Sherer, 55, in his family’s flower shop in north Minneapolis, police found no physical evidence of the killer. But a witness, Sherer’s sister, Cynthia McDermid, identified Haynes only after being shown a two-year-old photo of him with close-cropped hair.

McDermid had previously described the killer as a thin Black male, nearly 6 feet tall and 180 pounds with close-cropped hair. At the time, Haynes was 5-foot-7, weighed 130 pounds and had a long afro.

Police had no physical, forensic or surveillance evidence that connected Haynes to the shooting, according to the lawsuit. The complaint described how investigators pressured a 14-year-old to say what they wanted against Haynes by aggressively interrogating him, threatening a long prison sentence and putting him in a jail cell with adult men.

Haynes is represented in the lawsuit by New York City-based Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger, a civil rights law firm.

The lawsuit comes after Haynes filed a compensation claim with the state, demanding $100,000 for each of the 19-plus years he spent wrongfully incarcerated. In Minnesota, those who have had criminal cases exonerated with no outstanding felony charges are entitled to no less than $50,000 for each year of incarceration as compensation.