Former Montgomery County murder suspect sues investigators, prosecutor

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) – A man who spent two years in jail for murder is suing, claiming those investigating the case schemed to wrongfully convict him.

Charges against 56-year-old Nickie Miller for the 2011 murder of Paul Brewer were eventually dropped.

It was a death penalty case.

Miller is suing Montgomery County Sheriff Fred Shortridge, officers Mark Collier and Ralph Charles Jr. along with Montgomery County jailer Eric Jones, Commonwealth’s Attorney Keith Craycraft and Kentucky State Police polygraph examiner John Fyffe.

In the federal lawsuit, Miller claims the defendants knowingly initiated false charges based on evidence they fabricated.

Miller’s defense investigator, Joshua Powell, says over the course of several years, the defendants “manipulated physical evidence, participated in the destruction of physical exculpatory evidence, manufactured false inculpatory evidence, manipulated and manufactured a number of witness statements.”

According to the lawsuit, when the case went cold, officers Collier and Charles began to “feel the pressure associated with solving Mr. Brewer’s death” and conspired to frame Miller for the murder.

The lawsuit says “over the course of a single week, the Defendant Officers obtained a number of false statements that allowed them to initiate illegitimate charges against Mr. Miller for the murder of Paul Brewer.”

Kentucky State Police polygraph examiner John Fyffe is also accused of obtaining false statements.

The lawsuit says Fyffe was brought in after officers could not get a statement from Natasha Martin implicating Miller.

Fyffe is accused of inappropriately touching Martin during a polygraph test in an effort to encourage her to repeat a “false and fabricated statement” implicating Miller.

Both Fyffe and Charles threatened to have Martin’s children taken away from her if she did not make false statements, according to the lawsuit.

Documents also claim after Martin was released from jail, she asked Commonwealth Attorney Keith Craycraft what to do with correspondence she had exonerating Miller and Craycraft told her to destroy the evidence.

In a statement, Powell says: “Mr. Miller has suffered tremendous damage, mental suffering, cancer recurrence and loss of a normal life, all caused by the defendants misconduct.”

There have been no comments from the defendants so far.

To view the lawsuit: Nickie-Miller- Federal Lawsuit