2 settle lawsuits with mistakenly jailed people

2 settle lawsuits with mistakenly jailed people

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis officials have settled two more lawsuits with people who said they were jailed because of mistakes.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Cedric Wright received $5,000, and Shannon Renee McNeal was paid $18,750.

Wright was arrested for stealing beer and a bag of chips in 2011 but also jailed on charges for another man. He spent more than eight weeks there before being released.

McNeal was arrested in 2009 on a warrant for a woman roughly 15 years younger who had died months before the mistaken arrest. McNeal spent more than a day in custody, lost her job as a Metro bus driver for months and lost her apartment and car.

Two other civil settlements have been reached since the Post-Dispatch first began reporting on the issue.

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com