PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – The defense attorney for Vincent McClean told 10 On Your Side they plans to file a malicious prosecution lawsuit against the Commonwealth’s Attorney after he was exonerated on all charges in the death of Willie Marable.
It took a jury just 14 minutes to find McClean not guilty in a Portsmouth Courtroom on Thursday.
In May of 2018 McClean responded to a home invasion in Portsmouth.
After arriving, they saw two armed suspects, one of them being Willie Marable.
An officer shot Marable three times after he didn’t put his weapon down.
Although Vincent McClean wasn’t the one to pull the trigger, he was indicted on a manslaughter charge because he didn’t perform CPR.
In court on Thursday, two medical experts took the stand in court and said in that situation, CPR shouldn’t be used and wouldn’t have been helpful.
McClean’s attorney, Michael Massie, said they believe there was no evidence to support the prosecution’s argument.
“We are going to take a very close look at this case and my hope is that the evidence that they are able to present in this case is not like what they presented in the last case,” said Massie. “We are going to file a 19-83 action on the indictment from that trial we just won because we think there was a malicious prosecution and there was no evidence to support that prosecution.”
Massie said this case impacted McClean and his family significantly.
“You’re asking for damages based on how that trial and that indictment affected officer McClean and his family, it did significantly,” Massie said. “He lost a six-figure job that he was going to get back and then he got a new indictment and he couldn’t go back, so he’s in the same place.”
Massie said they plan to have this civil action lawsuit filed early next week.
Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales told 10 On Your Side she isn’t commenting on this at this time.
