INDIANAPOLIS -- The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that federal criminal civil rights charges will not be filed against Indianapolis police officers who were involved in the arrest of Brandon Johnson.

Representatives of the Justice Department, the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI met with Johnson and his family to tell them about the decision, officials said.

"The Justice Department's decision is based on the facts developed during a thorough and independent investigations of the events surrounding Johnson's May 16, 2010, encounter with officers who were in the process of arresting Johnson's younger brother," the U.S. attorney's office said in a news release.

Officials said they pored over police reports, statements from witnesses and merit board hearing transcripts to reach their decision.

The U.S. attorney said it was not demonstrated that officers acted "willfully" to deprive Johnson's constitutional rights.

"The evidence was insufficient to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges," officials said in the news release. "Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed."

Bill Owensby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said Officer Jerry Piland, who department brass initially recommended for firing, and the other officers involved in the arrest have been vindicated.

"It's just unfortunate that this is another area where there's another allegation of guilt or an assumption of blame before the facts come out," he said. "This is what we've been saying all along. Now, here you have three investigations they've had that have cleared Officer Piland."

Piland's attorney, John Kautzman, also praised the outcome.

"We always felt there was a rush to judgement by the administration by filing the termination charges in the first place, and, luckily, there's a process to vindicate these officers in the first place, and it worked out well," he said.

Indianapolis Public Safety Director Frank Straub stressed that the department never accused Piland of violating Johnson's civil rights.

"I think it shows that we are more than willing to open ourselves up to outside scrutiny, and we did that in this case," he said.

Attorneys representing Johnson said they disagree with the decision, but that it doesn't exonerate the officers involved.

"Brandon and his family intend to move forward to enforce the violation of his constitutional rights through the civil courts," read part of a statement from law firm Wagner, Reese and Crossen. "Our constitution and IMPD policy do not allow law enforcement officers to beat civilians who verbally protest police action."

Johnson was 15 at the time of the incident involving police. Piland now works for Indianapolis police in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security.

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