A New York man who pleaded guilty in a notorious 1980s sex abuse case alleges prosecutors defamed him to make him look like a "bad guy."

Jesse Friedman sued Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice on Thursday.

Friedman and his father pleaded guilty in 1988 to abusing 13 children at their Long Island home. Nevertheless, he has maintained he was coerced into confessing. A court in 2010 refused to overturn his conviction but encouraged Rice to review the case. She concluded it was handled properly.

Friedman's lawsuit says prosecutors created new allegations against him "seemingly out of whole cloth" during the review.

Rice, who's now running for Congress, had no comment.

Friedman was released from prison in 2001. The Friedmans' story was the subject of a 2003 Oscar-nominated documentary, "Capturing the Friedmans."