"I wasn't even here": Michigan man accused of assaulting officer while in New Jersey has charges dropped after wrongful arrest, must file for expungement

CASSOPOLIS, Mich. -- A man is left with a tarnished record following a wrongful arrest in Cass County. Christopher Laughlin contacted ABC57 News after being arrested for a crime he did not commit.

On May 1, Cass County Sheriff's Deputy Kelsey Showers filed an incident report, describing a black Chrysler PT Cruiser with a broken taillight and only one working brake light.

According to the document, the vehicle pulled over and a woman in the back seat allegedly tried to open the door and get out several times. Then, the front passenger door opened, hitting the officer, when an unidentified white male in a black hoodie ran off and disappeared.

Deputy Travis Brown and K9 Juno searched, and a drone was brought in, but the man was not found. The woman in the car, whose identity is unconfirmed as she is referred to as Angie/Trey in the report, identified the guy as Christopher Laughlin.

And that's the problem.

"It ended up in the police report being people that I never even heard of."

At first, he thought it was a guy named Chucky, someone he used to hang with prior to his recovery.

The 38-year-old recovering meth addict says he didn't know about the situation until police showed up on his doorstep and discovered a warrant.

"The neighbors actually called the cops for a noise ordinance because our tv was loud. Then the cop showed up, and then he said there wasn't an issue, and then he asked for my name, got back in the car, and then came back and knocked on the door, and that's when he put me in handcuffs and told me that I was arrested for a felonious assault on an officer," Laughlin explained.

Laughlin says he couldn't have known about the warrant because he was at Enlightened Solutions Detox, a rehab center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

This signed and dated letter from the facility director confirms Laughlin started treatment on April 27 and completed it on May 11. That's 10 days after the incident he's charged in.

Plane tickets show he left Grand Rapids on April 26. He says he was in detox from April 27 to May 11.

This ticket shows a return date of June 10. He says he was in residential from May 11 to June 10.

Christopher was given a court date but says he tried to resolve the issue by speaking directly with Sheriff Clint Roach.

"He told me that there was nothing that he could do, that I had to beat the case. I had to prove that it wasn't me. There was nothing that he could do anymore, but he said that he pretty much already knew that it wasn't me because they had already arrested people," says Laughlin.

Inside the Cass County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Laughlin was supposed to appear before Judge Rentfrow at 10 a.m. Instead, shortly after 10, his public defender pulled him into a room just before his scheduled hearing and came out with a pink notice — the charge was "dismissed with prejudice" so it cannot be refiled—but the arrest, charges and warrant remain on his record.

"They didn't even discuss this deal with me at all. They already signed it, and she said that it's already done. There's nothing else she can do. I never even signed the paper because I told her, I want it completely off my record. I wasn't even here. I wasn't even in the state of Michigan. I don't want it to ever show up on my record," says Laughlin.

After a quick visit to the prosecutor's office, Laughlin now has to file for expungement to clear his name.

ABC57 called and visited the Cass County Sheriff's Office before receiving a call back from Sheriff Roach. He said this is an ongoing investigation so he couldn't answer most of the questions including how and why they identified the suspect as Christopher Laughlin, and why they never contacted him about it before the warrant was issued.

Sheriff Roach did say there was a formal investigation before the case was sent to the prosecutor's office.

You can view the incident report below.