A Toledo man who spent 141 days in jail on charges stemming from the June shooting that injured 12 people at the Old West End Festival is now suing the city, the county, a Toledo police detective and the Lucas County prosecutor for $20 million, arguing in a federal civil rights lawsuit that officials built the case against him on a fabricated identification and sat on evidence pointing elsewhere. Eljay Crisp-Carr, 20, and his mother, April Carr, filed the suit on November 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Front Page Detectives reported on Monday, November 9, drawing on reporting by WTOL and WTVG in Toledo.
The lawsuit names the City of Toledo, Lucas County, Toledo police Detective Danielle Mooney and Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates as defendants, and it seeks at least $10 million in compensatory damages and another $10 million in punitive damages, according to the Front Page Detectives report. His attorneys have said the amount is tied to lasting harm and to punishing what they believe were purposeful mistakes, WTVG reported.
Everything that follows about how the case was built is, at this stage, the lawsuit’s allegation — not a court’s finding. The complaint alleges that investigators relied on a fabricated identification of Crisp-Carr, ignored evidence that undercut the case against him, and suppressed tips pointing to a different suspect, according to Front Page Detectives. The suit says two Crime Stoppers tips named a person referred to in the filing as “Individual A,” and alleges police did not disclose that person to the court or to the grand jury.
The complaint also argues the physical evidence never placed Crisp-Carr at the shooting. Video of the June 6 festival shooting never showed the gunman’s face, the lawsuit says, and cell records and witnesses placed Crisp-Carr about two and a half blocks away, beside his pickup truck, which had run out of gas. The suit further cites a July 2026 FBI cellular analysis that, it alleges, placed his phone on a Glenwood Avenue sector during the shooting, Front Page Detectives reported.
The timeline is not in dispute. Crisp-Carr was arrested on June 11, five days after the June 6 shooting at the Old West End Festival injured 12 people, according to the complaint. He then remained in jail for 141 days, until prosecutors dropped the charges against him on October 30 and he was released the same day, Front Page Detectives reported from WTVG’s coverage.
“They told me I was a monster. They just incriminated me,” Crisp-Carr said, as reported by Front Page Detectives from his remarks to WTVG. His mother was blunter about the people who had accused her son. “Sometimes jumping to conclusions have you looking like a donkey,” April Carr said, as reported by Front Page Detectives.
The dismissal itself came with a door left open. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means prosecutors could theoretically refile them, and Toledo police Sgt. Mohamad Nasser said the request followed “new developments in the evidence” and that the investigation remained active, according to the Front Page Detectives report of WTVG’s coverage. Prosecutor Bates, for her part, had said her office told Crisp-Carr’s attorney in September 2026 about discovery that “may support his defense,” in a statement published by 13abc and quoted by Front Page Detectives.
Crisp-Carr is not the only person charged in connection with the festival shooting. Another man, Ka’Nye Taylor, still faced dozens of charges, and a juvenile was charged with bringing a gun to the scene, Front Page Detectives reported from WTVG’s coverage — a reminder that the criminal investigation into who actually fired into the festival crowd is still open even as the civil case begins.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. Confirmed: the lawsuit was filed November 3, the charges against Crisp-Carr were dropped October 30 after 141 days in jail, and the dismissal was without prejudice. Alleged, and not yet tested in court: the fabricated identification, the suppressed Crime Stoppers tips and the claim that evidence was ignored. Still waiting: any response from the defendants — the prosecutor’s office said it does not comment on pending litigation, and no response from Toledo police or the city had been reported as of Monday’s Front Page Detectives report.
Toledo courts are handling several closely watched cases this fall, including the suit in which eight residents sued a Toledo trucking firm over a chemical release, while across the city, residents continue to press officials on neighborhood safety, as in the fight over a traffic light’s return after a teen was hit on Eleanor Avenue.
What happens next runs on two tracks. In federal court, the city, the county, Mooney and Bates will have to answer the complaint, and the case will move toward discovery, where the identification and the tips the suit describes would be examined under oath. In the criminal investigation, Toledo police say the festival shooting case remains active, and the charges against the other defendants continue — meaning the question of who shot 12 people in the Old West End in June is still, officially, unanswered.