Prosecutors won't be forced to testify at depositions in a false-arrest lawsuit filed by a landscaper once charged in some of the freeway shootings in metro Phoenix during the summer of 2015.
Judge David Campbell ruled Monday that prosecutors who handled Leslie Merritt Jr.'s now-dismissed case made a credible assertion that prosecutorial immunity prevents the depositions.
Prosecutors argued much of the information that Merritt's lawyers sought from them wasn't subject to the evidence-exchange process in criminal cases.
Merritt insisted he was innocent but spent seven months in jail before his release.
His case was dismissed after an expert said a crime lab incorrectly concluded that ballistic evidence linked Merritt's gun to four of the 11 shootings.
