COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement on behalf of the City of College Park.
A man who had previously been found not guilty of killing a transgender woman in College Park in 2017 is now suing the officer who investigated the case and arrested him.
Tyrone Kemp filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Northern District Court this week claiming he was wrongfully incarcerated on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault and others because of the "negligent, deliberate, willful and wrongful acts" of College Park police officer Kevin Pogorzelski.
It stems from the July 30, 2017, shooting death of Tee Tee Dangerfield. 11Alive previously reported on Kemp's arrest.
According to the lawsuit, Kemp met Dangerfield back in 2017 over an internet dating site and arranged to go to an Old National Hwy bar not far from Kemp's apartment complex off Godby Road on the night of July 30. But when the pair got there, the bar was closed, so Kemp asked for Dangerfield to take him back home.
Around 4 a.m., the lawsuit claims Dangerfield drove to the back of Kemp's apartment and was shot multiple times by a gunman. Dangerfield was taken to Grady Hospital but died just before 5 a.m. on July 31, 2017.
A nurse there would note that Dangerfield had 19 bullet holes to the abdomen and groin area, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Pogorzelski was the responding officer who went to Grady Hospital and began investigating the case but violated Kemp's constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments during the process of the investigation.
According to the lawsuit, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation dusted Dangerfield's vehicle shortly after the killing but did not come up with fingerprints that matched Kemp's. The lawsuit also claims that Kemp did not fit the description given by an eye-witness to the shooting and that statements on the suspect's actions after Dangerfield's killing included in the affidavit from Pogorzelski did not match with those given by the witness.
An eyewitness told Pogorzelski that the gunman fired into Dangerfield's car from the passenger side before "slowly jogging away" in the direction of buildings 12 and 14. That witness described the gunman as wearing a white T-shirt, blue jean shorts and white tennis shoes. The lawsuit claims that it did not match the description of Kemp's clothing, confirmed on multiple security surveillance video clips that showed Kemp wearing a white shirt, gray full-length pants and white shoes.
Despite that and the lack of fingerprint evidence, the lawsuit claims Pogorzelski requested a warrant anyway for Kemp's arrest on Aug. 22, 2017.
Kemp was indicted on Nov. 17, 2017, for the murder of Dangerfield but was later found not guilty in a jury trial almost exactly four years later on Nov. 24, 2021.
Kemp is now seeking damages for lost wages, among other things, claiming that Pogorzelski "breached his duty by providing false statements in the Affidavit" and accused him of "malicious prosecution."
11Alive reached out to the College Park Police Department for a response to the lawsuit. A spokesperson for a PR firm that represents the City of College Park said the city would not comment because of the pending litigation.
You can read the full lawsuit below: