Two mean are suing the Bureau of Indian Affairs after being arrested in connection with a string of rapes and sexual assaults on the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona.

Jeremy Reed, 23, and Jesse Dupris, 26, are each seeking $1.5 million from the BIA. They say they were falsely accused in a high-profile serial rape investigation that drew nationwide attention in the fall of 2006.

But the evidence was so thin that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona refused to file charges in federal court. The prosecutor for the White Mountain Apache Tribe ended up dropping the case against Reed and Dupris due to limited evidence.

"It got a lot of big press about how BIA had solved these rapes, but when I work with the evidence, I don't have them solved," tribal prosecutor Paula King said at the time.

One man was convicted of attempted sexual assault but the incident was not considered to be part of the serial rapes. Some say the true assailant remains at large.

Meanwhile, the BIA says the tribal law enforcement department is rife with problems. An audit at the time of the investigation found "indications of serious, ongoing misconduct."

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Serial-rape case exposes Apache police troubles (The Arizona Republic 11/30)