VALPARAISO | A $50 million lawsuit was filed Monday against the city of Gary and its police department for failing to search for two young men ejected from a car during a crash one month ago.

The young men -- Brandon Smith and Dominique Green, both 18 -- were found dead by family members hours after the crash. In filing the lawsuit, personal injury attorney Kenneth J. Allen alleges Green, whose family he's representing, was alive at the time police ignored pleas to search for the pair.

Allen, who is representing Green's parents, Willie Green Jr. and Jacquelyn Green, plans to seek court permission to exhume Green's body to find evidence to contradict the Lake County coroner's office contention that the young men died instantly.

Lake Superior Court Judge William Davis has issued an injunction preserving evidence in the case, like the 911 tape that Allen said supports his clients' contention that police knew there were missing accident victims, but did not search for them.

The single-vehicle crash occurred about 1:30 a.m. Sept. 15 in the 2700 block of Chase Street in Gary. The driver, 17-year-old Darius Moore, and a surviving passenger, both pleaded for police to find Smith and Green, Allen said.