Police Sued for Burying DNA Evidence that Kept an Innocent Man in Jail

Joshua Maxton has sued the City of Cincinnati and two of its police officials for suppressing DNA evidence that proved his innocence and kept him in jail on murder charges, facing a potential life sentence, for nearly seven months.

Maxton was arrested in June 2015 for the murder of eighteen-year-old Robin Pearl in the North Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati. After being jailed for nearly a year, a jury found Maxton not guilty of the murder in June 2016. But it was only in the middle of trial that he and his lawyers learned that the police had obtained DNA evidence confirming Maxton’s innocence and identifying another assailant seven months earlier, which they kept hidden.

Soon after Maxton’s June 2015 arrest, witnesses came forward to identify another person named Donte Foggie as the lone shooter. These eyewitnesses stated that Maxton was not the shooter and that he did not even have a gun. Forensic evidence backed them up when no gunshot residue was found on Maxton’s hands. Over the next few months the case unraveled further: a Big K cola can that had been dropped near the shooter’s position on Burton Avenue was tested for DNA. Maxton’s DNA was not on the can. The police learned in October 2015 that the DNA belonged to Foggie.  (Seattle Times, June 9, 2018)
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Why would the police let an investigation drag on for months, when there was evidence to support Mr. Maxton's innocence?

When allegations in the initial complaint were shown to be false (or at least lacking any clear evidence to support them), where was the probable cause to continue the investigation?

Allegations are not proof! Circumstantial evidence does not create probable cause!

When police officers focus their case on information that targets their suspect, but exclude or disregard information that would tend to clear that person; should those police officers be held personally responsible for investigative misconduct?  Should their supervisors be held responsible? What about the police department / agency itself?

You can read the civil rights complaint here.