A Dallas man initially identified as a person of interest in nine South Dallas rape cases says he's trying to move on now that authorities have cleared him and released him from jail.
After DNA evidence linked another man, Van Dixson, to four of the nine recent rapes in South Dallas, police confirmed to NBC 5 that Alan Mason was no longer a person of interest in the case.
Mason was cleared by police on Sept. 12, but didn't leave jail until Sept. 14, nearly nine days after he was arrested at his Arlington apartment.
Mason got out of the Dallas County Jail Saturday night. He spoke to NBC 5 on Sunday.
"I'm going to try to move forward, not let it hold me back or anything," Mason said. "But I am still upset about the situation and how everything went down."
The 29-year-old insurance agent was arrested at his Arlington apartment at 3:00 a.m. on September 6 after Dallas Police Chief David Brown named Mason as a "person of interest" on Twitter.
Mason was kept in jail for an outstanding DUI probation violation, but he might never have wound up in jail for that case if not for the rape investigation.
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During a news conference last week, Chief Brown said that Mason was never a suspect, just a person of interest and anyone who thought he was a suspect was wrong.
"For the people who did perceive him as a suspect, or refer to him as a suspect, shame on them, shame on them," Chief Brown said at a Sept. 11 news conference.
Mason says he doesn't see a difference between the two.
"A person of interest, suspect, is a fine line, you know to put someone's name out there. You're a suspect, you know, especially in the public's view." said Mason. "Actually you're really guilty, until you prove yourself innocent."
An informant fingered Mason, but DNA tests cleared him. It was DNA that later linked 38-year-old Van Dralan Dixson to several of the sexual assaults. Dixson was arrested in Louisiana on September 10, he will be transferred to the Dallas County Jail at some future date.
He says he still has not heard from Dallas police about any kind of apology since his interrogation.
"I'm not going to dwell on it, I'm going to try and move forward and not let it hold me back or anything," Mason said.
Mason says he's looking forward to getting back to work Monday and moving on from this ordeal. He said the nine women who have been raped since June in the area east and south of Dallas Fair Park are the true victims and what they are going though is worse than what happened to him.
NBC 5's Ken Kalthoff and Chris Van Horne contributed to this report
