Baltimore prosecutors dropped carjacking charges against Deryl Bright Jr. after seven months on an ankle monitor.

An alibi backed by school officials is about as strong as alibis get. According to the reporting, police estimated the unmasked teen on video was six inches shorter and heavier than Bright, and none of the three teens wore the uniform his school required. The case still sat for seven months until a reporter asked about it. Now, the outlets report, clearing his record comes with a condition: he has to agree not to sue. That trade deserves a hard look.

Atlanta Black Star, The Root, and Yahoo News, citing reporting by Baltimore Sun investigative reporter Kati Cimini, said Deryl Bright Jr. spent seven months on house arrest with an ankle monitor after Baltimore police accused him of taking part in a carjacking. Bright was 17 when he was accused. Atlanta Black Star reported the Baltimore state's attorney's office dismissed the charges the day after Cimini asked prosecutors why they remained active, and that authorities removed the monitor days later.

The outlets reported the case began shortly after 9 a.m. on Jan. 23, when three teens inside a McDonald's allegedly followed a man to his car to rob him. Two covered their faces with hoodies, and the third did not. One took the man's phone and wallet and ran, and the other two tried to take the car but fled after the man jumped onto the hood, according to the reporting. A school official told police the unmasked teen was Bright. Atlanta Black Star reported investigators estimated the teen in the footage was six inches shorter and heavier than Bright, and that Bright was on his way to his first-period agriculture class at Green Street Academy, more than half a mile away. Two school officials confirmed to the Sun that he was at school, and the public charter school required uniforms that none of the three teens in the footage appeared to be wearing, the outlets reported. Police arrested Bright at school about a month later and collected blood and urine samples, Atlanta Black Star reported.

On house arrest, Bright could go only to school, work, and doctor's appointments, and he told the Sun the violent charge kept him from continuing his job as a pharmacy technician, according to Atlanta Black Star. A judge refused to let him attend his prom, a family reunion, or a Florida graduation trip his mother had planned, the outlets reported. Atlanta Black Star reported he had the third-highest SAT score at his school the year before. "I feel isolated," Bright told Cimini days before the charges were dropped. "I feel unfairly punished for a crime I didn't commit." He also said, "I feel like I'm a victim of prejudice. They assume I was somebody I'm not."

Atlanta Black Star reported the state's attorney's office and the public defender's office blamed each other, and Baltimore police pointed to the unnamed school officials who identified Bright from surveillance video. The outlets reported there is no indication police have arrested any of the three people in the footage. Bright can have the case expunged, but only if he agrees not to sue, and his family is weighing its options, Atlanta Black Star and Yahoo News reported. Identification from a video by someone who thinks they recognize a face is one of the most common roots of a wrongful charge, and an alibi should be run down before an arrest, not after a reporter calls. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and for seven months the conditions placed on Bright looked a lot like punishment anyway.