Freeway shootings case

Deal with county attorney is for undisclosed amount

Leslie Merritt Jr., once a suspect in the Phoenix freeway shootings, reaches an undisclosed settlement with Maricopa County. Merritt was jailed for months, but charges were eventually dropped.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Leslie Allen Merritt Jr., the man authorities had accused in a series of shootings on Phoenix freeways in 2015 before charges against him were dropped.

The deal is for an undisclosed amount of money and involves only County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s office, documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court and signed by Judge David G. Campbell show.

It does not include the Arizona Department of Public Safety, whose investigators have been accused of rushing to judgment and using slapdash police work under public pressure to build a case against whoever shot vehicles on Interstate 10 and other Valley freeways.

Merritt, who was jailed for seven months before being released and the case against him dismissed, originally asked for $2.5 million apiece from the state of Arizona, Maricopa County and Montgomery. That lawsuit against the state and county alleged false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Merritt’s attorney, Jason Lamm, declined to comment Thursday about the settlement and the allegations against the state, citing the continuing nature