RALEIGH, N.C. — Hours after the Wake County district attorney said she would not criminally charge two troopers for their handling of a fatal crash, the family of Tyrone Mason sued one of the troopers in federal court. 

District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said two North Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers were not truthful about what happened before and after the deadly crash on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh in October.

“While their dishonesty violates the standards to which law enforcement officers must adhere,” Lorrin Freeman said Wednesday, “the District Attorney is not pursuing criminal charges as the evidence would not support a successful prosecution.”

Freeman said Wednesday that a state investigation she requested into Trooper Garrett Macario and Sgt. Matthew Morrison had concluded.

Mason's family sued Macario in federal court Wednesday, accusing the state trooper of trying to cover up what happened before and after the crash.

The suit contends that Macario, the trooper who tried to pull Mason over before Mason sped away and crashed, did not check on Mason when he got to the scene of the crash. 

The lawsuit says the trooper chased Mason for about a mile before pulling back and turning off his lights and sirens. A minute later, at 2:30 a.m., Mason crashed into a median where Wake Forest Road passes over Capital Boulevard. 

The lawsuit says Macario looked around the car but never checked to see if Mason was alive or injured.

Mason's time of death was 2:40 a.m., according to the lawsuit. 

"Defendant Macario explained that he pursued Decedent with the intention of pulling him over but turned his lights off. He further explained that after turning his lights off, he came around the corner and found that Decedent had wrecked. Trooper Morrison responded, 'Please tell me you’re (expletive) joking,'" the lawsuit states. 

According to the lawsuit, Morrison, the sergeant, told Macario to tell Raleigh police "that he 'drove up on' the accident."

A judge recently ordered video from the incident be released to the public, though it has still not been made available. 

"Defendant Macario’s decision to engage Decedent Mason in a high-speed chase through Raleigh that he knew to be dangerous, and his subsequent attempts to cover it up, is conduct that shocks the conscience and Defendant Macario was deliberately indifferent to the threats to Decedent’s life and bodily autonomy," the lawsuit states.

The family is represented by noted national civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers and Ben Crump, with Sean Cecil and their local council.

Investigators found that on Oct. 7, Macario tried to pull Mason over for speeding on Capital Boulevard north out of downtown Raleigh, but Mason accelerated and fled, Freeman said Wednesday. Macario initially gave chase, but then turned off his lights and ended his pursuit. Mason lost control and crashed into a concrete barrier.

Macario called in the crash, then called his supervisor, Morrison, Freeman said.

Morrison told Macario not to tell Raleigh police officers that he tried to pull over Mason but that he drove up on the crash, Freeman said. Morrison told Macario that the crash “sounds like Raleigh’s problem.”

Macario gave false and misleading information to officers who arrived on scene, Freeman said, although he later informed other officers that he had tried to stop Mason.

“While Trooper Macario’s initial false statements to the officers who arrived on scene to investigate this wreck are inexcusable and create significant concerns,” Freeman states, “his subsequent truthful statements within the relevant time frame prevent the State from being able to move forward with a successful prosecution.”

Mason, 31, had a blood-alcohol level of about .11, the medical examiner found.

Earlier this year, Freeman said questions about both troopers’ credibility led her to drop about 180 driving-while-impaired cases. In her report Wednesday, she says that going forward she won’t pursue cases that rely on Macario and Morrison.

“The District Attorney has determined that her office will not prosecute cases in which the testimony of Trooper Macario or Sergeant Matthew Morrison is required,” Freeman said.

Freeman notes that Macario didn’t try to contact or help Mason in the immediate aftermath of the wreck.

Mason’s family has demanded transparency and accountability in the handling of the case and has called for the release of video footage related to the crash.

A Wake County judge on May 16 ordered the release of the footage after a petition from news outlets. 

Freeman in her report says Mason’s mother, Henrietta Mason, for months tried to get accurate information about her son’s death. Although Macario’s statements caused confusion about the wreck, Freeman said, police could have answered her questions earlier if they had done a more thorough investigation.

The State Highway Patrol on Wednesday evening offered its condolences to Mason's family.

First Sgt. Christopher Knox stated: "We do recognize and take ownership that words spoken and captured by video in the moments after the collision’s occurrence do not reflect the high standards we place upon our members nor the lifesaving work that we see them carry out daily. We do believe, however, that this collision was a result of Mr. Mason’s actions alone."

Knox also said that Macario and Morrison are on administrative leave while an internal investigation is being conducted. 

"As an agency, we take matters that call into question the integrity of members seriously and that is no different in this case," Knox said.