(Valley News Live) – A Colorado man has filed a federal lawsuit against the Grand Forks Police Department, the city of Grand Forks, and the Grand Forks County State’s Attorney’s Office, alleging a botched investigation led to his wrongful arrest and prosecution on a child exploitation charge that was ultimately dismissed.
Deryck Middleton, 40, of Golden, Colorado, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court, naming three Grand Forks police officers and two county prosecutors individually, along with the police department, the city and the state’s attorney’s office. The lawsuit alleges violations of Middleton’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, along with claims of negligence, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution.
According to the lawsuit, the case began in January 2025, when a school information technology employee discovered sexually explicit messages on the school-issued laptop of a 13-year-old Grand Forks student. The messages had been exchanged with someone using an alias who claimed to be an 18-year-old living in Michigan.
The lawsuit alleges a Grand Forks police officer misspelled the suspect’s email address while searching for information on the account, which returned no results. Months later, after investigators obtained records from Zoom tied to video calls referenced in the messages, the correct spelling of the same email address surfaced, along with an IP address that traced to Michigan, matching details the suspect had given the teen about his age, location, and schooling, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that instead of pursuing that lead, the investigating officer shifted focus to Middleton after discovering his personal email address was linked as a recovery contact on the suspect’s account, a connection the lawsuit attributes to the officer’s earlier spelling error, and that Middleton had publicly posted photos of his dog, whose name matched the suspect’s alias. Middleton had no known connection to North Dakota, according to the lawsuit, and none of the identifying details the suspect gave the teen, his age, home state or high school activities, matched Middleton.
A warrant was issued, and Middleton was arrested at his Colorado home in October 2025 by several armed sheriff’s deputies in front of neighbors and his girlfriend, according to the lawsuit. He was jailed in Colorado, then jailed again after traveling to North Dakota, where he was formally charged with luring a minor by computer, a felony carrying a potential sentence of years to decades in prison.
The lawsuit says the charges were ultimately dismissed after Middleton’s attorneys reviewed the investigative file and were able to independently identify the Michigan suspect using information already contained in the case record. According to the lawsuit, that suspect has not been arrested or publicly identified by authorities.
Middleton’s attorneys say the ordeal cost him his trusted traveler status for international travel. He was denied entry into Canada and Japan, which cost him business commissions after he was placed on administrative leave, and has caused lasting psychological harm, including depression and insomnia.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and other damages, along with a court order requiring the police department and state’s attorney’s office to adopt new training and oversight policies.
Valley News Live has reached out to the Grand Forks Police Department and the Grand Forks County State’s Attorney’s Office for comment.
In a response to Valley News Live, Grand Forks County State’s Attorney Haley Wamstad said her office “became aware of information indicating that the individual who had been arrested and charged was not the person who committed the alleged offense,” and that once the issue was brought to the office’s attention, prosecutors “promptly reviewed the matter, dismissed the charges, and took steps to have the arrest record associated with the matter expunged.”
“We take the accuracy of criminal prosecutions very seriously,” Wamstad said. “When information comes to our attention that calls the identity of the accused into question, it is our responsibility to address that issue promptly and appropriately.”
These are allegations contained in a civil complaint. The claims have not been proven in court.
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