RICHMOND — A man who spent 31 years behind bars for a controversial murder conviction has filed a federal civil rights suit against police that reads like a history textbook on a decades-old Bay Area law enforcement scandal.

During the 1980s, a sect within the Richmond Police Department known as the “Cowboys” became infamous for on- and off-duty killings, alleged racism, a multi-million dollar lawsuit settlement and finally a cocaine case against a former cop implicated in the scandal. Now, all these memories are back in the spotlight, as a federal suit seeks to prove they framed the plaintiff for murder by forcing a potential witness to name him.

The plaintiff, Richmond native Rickey Godfrey, pleaded no contest in 2023 to manslaughter in the 1992 shooting death of Reginald Norfleet, reversing a life-without-parole murder conviction and freeing him from prison in the process. Godfrey never wavered from his claim that he’s innocent of killing Norfleet, but maintains the change-of-plea was the fastest way to get him out of incarceration.

The suit names the city of Richmond and two former policemen, one of whom is deceased. Retired Detective Dennis Trujillo, and the late Denis Browne, the suit claims, “were both members of a notorious, all-white gang of RPD officers that called itself the ‘Cowboys.’”

The so-called Cowboys scandal of the 1980s ended with a $3 million verdict over the police killings of Johnny Roman and Michael Guillory, two of six Black men killed by Richmond cops over a three-year period, which fueled allegations of racial profiling by the police force.

The suit alleges that Trujillo and Browne stopped a then-teenager named Gerald Michael Cannon on his way home from school, and threatened him with the prospect of life in prison if he didn’t identify Norfleet’s killer. Days earlier, Cannon had been threatened by the real killer not to talk, the suit says, creating the “perfect storm” that ended with Godfrey being prosecuted.

“Mr. Cannon was cornered — a teenager alone with Det. Trujillo and Sgt. Browne, a police officer who had previously threatened him with a gun. He gave in to the officers’ threats and told them Mr. Godfrey had shot Mr. Norfleet,” the suit says. Decades later, after his testimony helped place Godfrey behind bars, Cannon would recant his confession in a 2021 sworn statement.

But even after Cannon recanted, the conviction of Godfrey remained. Contra Costa prosecutors continued to defend the guilty verdict for the next two years, until they struck a deal with Godfrey’s attorney, allowing some of the homicide-related conviction to stand, but freeing Godfrey that same day.

Norfleet’s son opposed the deal and spoke out against Godfrey’s freedom.

Asked to comment on the suit, Richmond police Chief Bisa French said the descriptions of alleged police misconduct are “very concerning” and expressed doubt that it would happen in today’s day and age.

“I believe we have policies, practices and procedures in place today that would prevent the alleged behavior described by Mr. Godfrey,” French said in an email.

The suit, filed Friday, recalls police killings, brutality and alleged civil rights violations by Richmond officers, including Trujillo and Browne.

It also includes a black-and-white picture of Richmond officers posing with a Confederate flag in 1979, in what appears to be a Civil War reenactment or a staged period picture.

In 1983, Browne shot and killed a man he claimed was a heroin dealer, Tony Kizart, at close range with a shotgun. Four Richmond cops later testified that Kizart fired a gun first. But there was one problem: no corresponding bullet ever turned up, according to media reports at the time.

Then-Contra Costa District Attorney William O’Malley’s office reviewed the incident and declined to prosecute Browne, but his death resulted in a federal suit. Years later, Trujillo, too, was sued over a fatal shooting committed by a colleague, in an incident that occurred after-hours, in Crockett, during an alcohol-fueled party there.

While Trujillo and two colleagues were searching for a colleague who’d wandered off from the house party, they came across a group of friends that included 23-year-old Troy Alves and a confrontation ensued, according to media reports at the time. Alves reportedly ended up knocking Trujillo to the ground in a fistfight.

The officers would later say that Alves then pulled a pistol and fired, prompting another Richmond officer, Rahn Carmichael, to shoot his own gun and kill Alves. The city of Richmond paid $207,500 to settle a suit by Alves’ mother over that incident, an Oakland Tribune article from the time says.

The same year as the Alves shooting, a then-retired Richmond officer who’d been at the center of the Cowboys scandal, Clinton “Mad Dog” Mitchell, was charged with selling cocaine to an undercover federal agent in Port Costa. Mitchell had been a defendant in the Roman/Guillory lawsuit.

Nick Bourland, a lawyer with the Los Angeles-based firm that filed Godfrey’s suit, issued a brief statement saying the goal was to hold “the city and two of its most troubled police officers accountable.”

“Ricky Godfrey’s wrongful murder conviction was the tragic consequence of a lawless police department that, for decades, let officers abuse their authority and break the rules to get convictions,” Bourland said.