An Idaho Falls man who spent more than 20 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn’t commit is suing the city and former members of the police department.
Christopher Tapp was wrongfully convicted for the 1996 murder and rape of Angie Dodge, despite DNA evidence that didn’t match hair or semen samples collected at the crime scene.
Now, he’s suing the city and seven former Idaho Falls police officers, saying they threatened him into giving multiple false confessions that were used to convict him at trial.
The lawsuit claims the detectives also fed Tapp details about the crime scene that were never released to the public to use in his confessions, which they later used against him.
Tapp was eventually released from prison in 2017. But prosecutors refused to drop the murder charge until last year when investigators arrested Brian Dripps based on new DNA evidence.
A spokesperson for Idaho Falls declined to comment, saying the city would respond to Tapp’s claim in a legal filing.
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