An Alabama man is suing a police officer for defamation, alleging the cop framed him for causing his wife’s 2018 hit-and-run death. Jason Todd alleges in the suit that he was preparing to play with his band at Friends Steakhouse in Clanton, Alabama, when he noticed his wife, Tonya, was visibly drunk. Instead of letting her drive home, Todd told her to wait for him to finish up and drive her. Then as they argued, he says he facetiously told her, “fine, walk home.” To his surprise, she did. But she was hit and killed by a car on the way. Police then charged Todd with manslaughter, alleging he threw Tonya’s keys across the road, prompting her to go on the walk that killed her.

The lawsuit against officer David Hicks says that, as Todd was still grieving his wife’s death, he was “ambushed” with an interrogation by investigators who lied about having evidence substantiating his guilt. This included referencing a fictitious video of Todd throwing his wife’s car keys into grass, when he hadn’t actually thrown her keys at all. Todd’s suit also says that when he insisted he was innocent, investigators “called him a liar and showed him pictures of Tonya’s shattered body.”