A former Wayne County police officer has sued the City of Ann Arbor and one of its officers, alleging he was framed for a sexual assault in 2023 as retaliation for rejecting the officer's sexual advances and reporting him for harassment. Hashim Zrien's federal complaint claims Ann Arbor police officials never seriously investigated his account of what happened, even after body-worn-camera footage appeared to clear him.
Zrien filed the lawsuit on August 20, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, naming Jordan Dottor, the City of Ann Arbor, and a woman identified in court filings as Josephine Bartlett as defendants. According to MLive, the case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Judith E. Levy, and is registered as *Zrien v. City of Ann Arbor et al.*, according to PacerMonitor. Zrien and Dottor previously worked together at the Dearborn Heights Police Department, per the same case record.
A Dating-App Report That Led Back to Zrien
The federal complaint centers on events from August 22, 2023, when a woman contacted the Ann Arbor Police Department to report that a man she'd met on a dating website had sexually assaulted her. Dottor was among the Ann Arbor officers dispatched to take her report, and according to the complaint, he recognized Zrien as the man pictured in the woman's dating profile.
Zrien alleges the accusation was no coincidence. According to the complaint, he claimed Dottor knew the woman beforehand and had conspired with her to frame him, retaliation, Zrien says, for reporting Dottor for sexual harassment earlier that year. The Ann Arbor Police Department ultimately closed its investigation after body-worn-camera footage showed Zrien was working in Dearborn Heights at the time of the alleged assault, per the complaint.
Detective Allegedly Told Zrien to Sue Instead
Despite that footage, Zrien contends police officials never conducted a meaningful investigation into Dottor's conduct and took no disciplinary or corrective action against him. According to the complaint, a detective told Zrien there was no way to prove Dottor was behind the woman's allegations and encouraged him to sue Dottor instead of pursuing further departmental action. The 15th District Court in Ann Arbor has no criminal sexual-misconduct charges connected to the case, per the same account.
The woman who made the report was charged in 2024 with a false report of a felony, but pleaded guilty to a false report of a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 18 months' probation. Under Michigan Compiled Laws Section 750.411a, intentionally making a false report of a felony carries up to four years in prison and a $2,000 fine, while a false misdemeanor report tops out at 93 days in jail and a $500 fine, according to Shelton Legal Services.
A Separate Harassment Suit Already Pending
This is not the first legal action Zrien has brought against Dottor. In May 2025, Zrien and fellow officer Maxwell Bearden filed a civil rights lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court against Dottor and the Dearborn Heights Police Department, alleging pervasive workplace sexual harassment and station-house sexual coercion, a case Hoodline covered in its earlier report on Dottor. That suit alleges Dottor sexually harassed Zrien as far back as 2017, sending him unsolicited nude photographs and threatening him after Zrien declined to participate in a threesome with Dottor and a friend. Zrien and Bearden further allege Dottor asked for nude photographs and sexually assaulted at least one officer, and that case remains pending in Wayne County Circuit Court.
Following that 2025 lawsuit, the Michigan State Police launched an independent criminal investigation into the sexual assault and harassment allegations against Dottor, according to FOX 2 Detroit. Dearborn Heights officials pledged full cooperation with state investigators at the time. When the lawsuit became public, Ann Arbor Police Chief Andre Anderson announced Dottor had been placed on administrative leave pending an internal review, according to ClickOnDetroit.
Still on the Payroll in Ann Arbor
Dottor resigned from the Dearborn Heights Police Department amid internal misconduct investigations and was hired by Ann Arbor police in June 2023, before the harassment allegations became public. He remains employed there today. Ann Arbor Deputy Chief Chris Page confirmed Dottor is still working at the department, and city payroll records show he earned $87,250.33 in 2025 and $81,638.88 in 2026.
For the new federal case, Zrien is represented by attorney Zachary T. Runyan of Runyan Law Group, a shift from attorney Jonathan Marko of Marko Law, who represented him in the 2025 Dearborn Heights litigation, per PacerMonitor's case record. The federal lawsuit brings claims of First Amendment retaliation, malicious prosecution and investigation, and emotional distress against Dottor, Bartlett, and the city.
The Legal Hurdles Ahead
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has addressed First Amendment retaliation claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, according to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawsuit also raises questions about whether reporting a supervisor's harassment was protected speech.
Holding the city itself liable is a steeper climb. Under the federal *Monell* doctrine governing municipal liability, a city cannot be held responsible for an employee's conduct through vicarious liability alone; plaintiffs must show an official policy, custom, or deliberate failure to train or investigate directly caused the constitutional violation, per a separate Sixth Circuit ruling. It's a threshold Zrien's attorneys will need to clear to keep Ann Arbor in the case as more than a bystander defendant.
This isn't Dottor's first brush with federal civil rights litigation from his Dearborn Heights tenure. He was previously named as a co-defendant in the 2017 case *Jaafar v. City of Dearborn Heights*, according to Justia Law.
City attorney Atleen Kaur did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Zrien's attorney. The Ann Arbor Police Department declined to comment further, citing its policy against discussing pending litigation. Whether the Michigan State Police criminal investigation into Dottor will result in charges, and how the city will defend against the *Monell* claims, remain open questions as the federal case moves forward.
