NEW HAVEN (AP) — A Connecticut man who spent 17 years in prison for a killing he says he did not commit has sued the city of New Haven and four former law enforcement investigators.

Vernon Horn was convicted of murder in the January 1999 death of 22-year-old Caprice Hardy.

Horn was exonerated in April after a re-investigation found that 137 pages of telephone records were never logged into evidence and showed Horn could not have been at the scene of the killing.

The New Haven Register reports the federal suit says police coerced and threatened witnesses, fabricated and destroyed evidence, and failed to investigate evidence that would have exonerated Horn.

The suit seeks unspecified damages.

A city attorney deferred questions to the mayor's office. The mayor's spokesman did not return a phone call.