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Get Marty: Man Wrongfully Arrested Wants His Name Cleared

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- "When I see a police car, I start shaking," says 61-year-old Rex Coughenour.

The South Side resident reached out to KDKA's Get Marty after he was wrongfully arrested and jailed.

Coughenour was arrested by Pittsburgh Police on Sept. 15 on the South Side. He was walking home from the Duquesne University campus where he's studying for his MBA.

He was stopped by police two blocks from his home.

A woman who had just been severely beaten and robbed was brought to the scene. The victim identified him as the suspect. Coughenour was taken immediately to jail and charged with several felonies, including assault and robbery.

"He was facing the rest of his life in prison," says David James, the Allegheny County public defender assigned to his case.

Coughenour spent a month in jail before investigators were able to find surveillance tapes proving he was studying in Duquesne University's library when the crime occurred.

A few days after his release from jail, Coughenour was arrested again. Attorneys say Pitt Police saw his mugshot and arrested him for defiant trespass in a University of Pittsburgh building.

"They used to say innocent until proven guilty. Some people say guilty until proven innocent. I think it's now guilty until after you are proven innocent," Coughenour said.

Attorneys that KDKA's Get Marty contacted are now looking at Coughenour's case.

"Not only did they [police] not arrest the right person. They got somebody in jail that's completely innocent. The person who actually committed the crime is still out on the streets," says civil rights attorney Maggie Coleman.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Police say their detectives acquired the surveillance video that actually had all of the charges against Coughenour dismissed.

If you'd like Marty to help you solve your problem, email him at GetMarty@kdka.com.

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