Man sues Eastpointe police for $50 million in robbery he didn't commit leading to 7 years in jail

EASTPOINTE, Mich. (FOX 2) - An Eastpointe police detective was hit with a $50 million lawsuit, accused of framing a man who claims he spent more than seven years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Mack Howell believes that it was the detective who works at the East Point Police Department who set him up in an armed robbery in the summer of 2014.

It took place at a 7-Eleven in Eastpointe, where security video shows a man, dressed in black with a gun, demanding the clerk open the cash register before taking the money.

Mack Howell was arrested and convicted. Now 62 years old, Howell was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.  The only problem is, Mack Howell says he wasn’t the guy that robbed the 7-Eleven.

"I don’t go nowhere, I don’t trust nobody I always (stay by) myself," he said.

Mack Howell spent seven years in prison before Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido’s Conviction Integrity Unit got him out of prison in March of this year.

"We are here to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit, seeking compensation in the amount of $50 million dollars," said attorney Wolfgang Mueller.

Howell claims it was then-Detective Matthew Hambright, who framed him, never telling the prosecutor that there was a serial robber of 7-Eleven’s in Macomb County, but he was caught.

"In fact when they caught him in August of 2014, he had just robbed the very same store that was involved in this robbery," Mueller said.

The detective allegedly never told Prosecutor about the serial robber, omething Mack’s defense attorney at the time at a right to know.

Experts analyzed the video and determined the real Robber was 5 feet. 10 inches.

"Their two experts had the robber in this store as being about 5 foot, 10," Mueller said. "It turns out, that’s exactly the size of the robber who pled guilty."

Which was the description by the clerk, but not Mack who is 5-6 and 200 pounds.

"I have yet to see the complaint or anything about the lawsuit in this particular case," said Corey Haines, interim Eastpointe police chief. "But again, we take these things very seriously and we will be investigating to make sure that everything was done properly."

The detective at the time, Mathew Hambright, is still in the department, and is Eastpointe’s deputy police chief now.

Apparently a Roseville police dog sniffed and found a beer can that matched Howell's DNA but the beer was not related to the robbery.