PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pennsylvania state trooper sued Pittsburgh police on Tuesday, saying they arrested him on false charges and used excessive force - including a kick to the groin - when he tried to calm a rowdy groomsman following a brawl after his brother's wedding.
Trooper David Williams, 35, of Plum, contends city officers falsely claimed he attacked them when, instead, they pushed and punched him for no reason, escalating a situation he was trying to help defuse.
Williams spent 17 hours in jail and was suspended by the state police for 10 days without pay before Allegheny County prosecutors dropped charges including rioting and aggravated assault - both felonies - at a preliminary hearing after the Sept. 1 melee.
"It's just not true, everything they filed against me," Williams told the Associated Press, referring to the criminal charges. "All these charges, they just don't exist."
His lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, seeks unspecified monetary damages.
Attorney Timothy O'Brien said the lawsuit targets the "unnecessary escalation of otherwise manageable situations. It's a problem within the Pittsburgh Police Department and it's a problem across the country."
City police have a history of excessive force complaints. A class-action lawsuit brought by 66 people alleging rough treatment, false arrest or both resulted in a 1997 consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department requiring the city to better train its officers and monitor complaints against them.
More recently, a federal jury last year awarded $119,000 to a young black man after finding police wrongly arrested him for prowling when he was walking to his grandmother's house in January 2009. The jury rejected claims that three white officers used excessive force during the arrest.
O'Brien said the case of Williams, who is white, proves nobody is safe from such abuses.
"If it can happen to Mr. Williams - a police officer, a state trooper - then who amongst us is not in danger of having it happen to them?" O'Brien said.
City police spokeswoman Sonya Toler said the bureau doesn't comment on litigation. The city's law department didn't immediately comment.
Williams' arrest, captured on surveillance video, occurred after a fight broke out among the wedding party in a parking lot after they got off a riverboat.
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