Mother of murder victim blames detective charged with misconduct

Gena Cottrell says she feels betrayed.

The mother of murder victim Corey Clark says a wound was torn open all over again Friday when she found out former Pittsburgh police homicide detective Margaret "Peg" Sherwood was indicted by a grand jury.

"I hugged her. She hugged me. Who does that? Why would you even wanna be like that?" Cottrell said. "I trusted her. I thought that she would help find who murdered my son."

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Paperwork states Sherwood allegedly wrote a false criminal complaint that led to Clark's wrongful arrest.

Shortly after evidence came out, charges were dropped against Clark. He was released from jail and gunned down in what police called a targeted shooting just days later.

"You know that you were the reason that my son’s life was snuffed away,” Cottrell said.

Sherwood now faces nine criminal charges for alleged misconduct during several high-profile homicide investigations.

Her attorney told Channel 11 Sherwood was a great cop,

tough, and believes she is being scapegoated."I don't think she did anything intentionally and I can say this: when this is all said and done, there's gonna be a lot of red faces,” said Patrick Thomassey.

In the meantime, Cottrell says she's on a mission and she plans to take legal action in the name of her son and all murder victims.

"So I put it in God's hands until today,” she said. “Now I see that I'm not gonna let this die. Somebody's gonna pay for my son’s murder."

Cox Media Group