(posted: May 26th, 8:00pm) After almost six years, two former Schenectady police officers were cleared of violating a man's civil rights.

Back in July of 1999, Michael Siler and Richard Barnett were accused of dropping an African-American man off in Glenville and abandoning him there without his shoes.

The Justice Department recently decided that David Sampson's civil rights were not violated and sent a letter to Sampson's attorney notifying them of the decision.

Former Schenectady Attorney Michael Brockbank said while he believes what the officers did was not the best thing, he said it was not done arbitrarily.

"A woman came home and found a black man- she was black, he was black- he was on her porch dealing drugs and he wouldn't leave," said Brockbank.  "It was done by them in an effort to respond to the complaint of the person who said there is a man on my porch and won't leave."

While the federal investigation did not rule in Sampson's favor, his case did spark an investigation into the police department that eventually led to the convictions of Siler and Barnett and two other officers on drug charges.

"It clearly shows the type of officers they were, willing to take a cowboy action and that caught up with them," said Brockbank.

However, Brockbank said neither the federal investigation, nor the convictions, should lead people to believe the police department targeted certain communities. Both Sampson and his attorney Kevin Luibrand were unavailable for comment.