Jordan Coleman’s conviction was overturned, and the phony charges were dismissed with prejudice, after exculpatory evidence concealed by the police came to light.
TACOMA — Late Friday, attorneys for Jordan D. Coleman, 44, of Pe Ell, filed a federal lawsuit on his behalf against Lewis County, three officers of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department, and two Lewis County Prosecutors, alleging that they conspired to falsely accuse and wrongly convict him of sexually assaulting a minor.
“Jordan Coleman was branded a child molester and jailed for more than two years of his life, based on false accusations and the government hiding evidence,” says attorney David B. Owens, of the civil rights law firm of Loevy + Loevy and the Civil Rights and Justice Clinic at the University of Washington School of Law. “The government had evidence and information Coleman was innocent, but they still chose to turn a good man’s life into a nightmare.”
The suit alleges Mr. Coleman’s nightmare began in 2020, and arose, in part, from his own efforts to protect a then 15-year-old minor referred to as M.J.J.M. in court documents. That year, Mr. Coleman reported that an adult man was having illegal sexual relations with M.J.J.M, and intervened to stop it, testifying for the State in the criminal proceedings. It was in the wake of this intervention that M.J.J.M. falsely accused Mr. Coleman of rape and other sexual misconduct against her.
“It would have been obvious to any reasonable investigator that, while serious, the allegations M.J.J.M. made against Coleman were untrue,” the complaint contends.
In fact, the complaint continues, the investigators did uncover information that demonstrated that the allegations were unfounded. But—for reasons hard to imagine—they elected to keep this evidence a secret, and instead built a case against Mr. Coleman based on their own false reporting and fabricated statements.
Despite his innocence, Mr. Coleman was convicted at trial. But he never gave up hope, and never stopped insisting on his innocence. Shortly after his conviction, his lawyers discovered evidence favorable to his case that had been hidden by the government, and evidence of other egregious misconduct that made the criminal proceedings unfair. Mr. Coleman was released, and a court ordered all charges against him permanently dismissed.
By this time, however, the damage had been done: Mr. Coleman had spent nearly three years battling the accusations that he was a child rapist, including more than two years imprisoned in Lewis County Jail. His mental and physical health suffered, as did the reputation and relationships of both himself and his loved ones.
The federal lawsuit follows a claim Coleman made against the State of Washington under the Wrongly Convicted Person’s Act, asserting his actual innocence. That statute was recently amended in 2026, following Mr. Coleman’s own testimony before the Washington legislature concerning the need for additional reentry support for the wrongfully convicted in Washington State.
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For a copy of the complaint against Lewis County, click here.