Officer lawsuit claims pressure to portray Mateen Cleaves guilty in rape case

Major questions being raised tonight into the sexual assault charges filed against a Michigan State  basketball legend.

A police officer filed a lawsuit, claiming he was pressured into steering the investigation a certain way.

The Mundy Township police officer claims he was actually pressured by his own department to portray Mateen Cleaves as guilty. With this lawsuit, Officer Brian Ogle is throwing this case a major curve ball.

FOX 2: "What does this do for the case against Mateen Cleaves?"

"I think Mateen Cleaves just got himself a star witness," said Charlie Langton, FOX 2 legal analyst.

Former MSU basketball star Mateen Cleaves is facing serious charges accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Genesee County motel last September.

But in a surprise move - Brian Ogle, the Mundy Township police officer who first investigated the case, now claims he was pressured to portray Cleaves as guilty, even though he believed he wasn't.

Cleaves' attorney Frank Manley weighs in.

"Now a veteran police officer who is also an attorney, has brought allegations that he was somehow pressured to somehow change their testimony against Mr. Cleaves is almost grounds on its face, to dismiss this case," Manley said.

Officer Brian Ogle is now suing the Mundy Township Police Department. He claims he was disciplined and suspended for two days after he informed the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, which is handling the Cleaves case, about what happened.

FOX 2 is told Ogle was the first to respond to the motel that day. He interviewed the  24-year-old woman and Cleaves. Sources say he even drove Cleaves home from the scene that day. 

However, the alleged victim did not report the sexual assault until after a rape kit was performed at the hospital.

"This officer might have been pressured," Langton said. "He was driving Mateen Cleaves, he may have been star-struck and that will come out in cross-examination of this particular witness but there is at least someone in this world that says Mateen Cleaves not guilty of sexual assault."

According to his attorney, Ogle did not feel there was a crime committed despite the fact as FOX 2 reported last month, investigators pulled video from the motel that day that shows Cleaves drag his alleged naked victim back to the motel room after she tried to escape three separate times.

"Many times people like to take down celebrities," Manley said. "It is a double edged sword, you build them up then you take them down. Maybe it didn't fit the narrative of the rest of the story they had in their minds."

Ogle has been with the department nearly 20 years and is suing under the whistleblower act for more than $25,000.

Manley now wants Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to re-examine the case and launch a full investigation.