A Portland man has

against

, alleging assault, battery and negligence and seeking $545,000 in damages stemming from his June 2011 arrest for drunken driving.

Jason Matthew Cox, 39, is represented by Portland attorneys Gregory and Jason Kafoury.

About 10:20 p.m. on June 18, 2011, Cox was approached by police after he parked in the back lot of the Pallas Club strip club, at Southeast Powell Boulevard and 136th Avenue.

Portland police officers, according to their reports, said they saw Cox race out of a nearby bar's parking lot and speed to the strip club. When they went to arrest Cox, they said they used force to overcome his "combative resistance," according to Officer Jeffrey Elias' report.

Yet the Kafourys obtained video surveillance from a neighboring business, which did not show Cox fighting with police.

Jason M. Cox

The video caught a Portland officer punching Cox about six times in the face and another stunning him with a Taser gun four times as he lay prone on the ground, according to the attorneys.

"The officers held plaintiff's hands behind him, forced him toward the ground face-first and repeatedly beat him, repeatedly Tased him and then yanked on his left arm and shoulder, all causing injury,"

. It was filed Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

"You don't usually have such great video" to refute the officers' account, attorney Jason Kafoury said Wednesday. "This was totally unprovoked. It's crazy."

Cox suffered a torn shoulder muscle that required surgery, according to the suit.

He was arrested and accused of driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving, resisting arrest, interfering with police and second-degree disorderly conduct. On Sept. 29, 2011, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of intoxicants and the remaining charges were dismissed. His driver's license was suspended for one year. He was placed on three years of bench probation and ordered to undergo alcohol treatment, according to court records.

Jason M. Cox

that he saw Cox peel his Chevy pickup out of the Papa Sons Tavern and speed off. Elias drove after the pickup and approached Cox after he had parked outside the Pallas Club.

Elias described Cox as agitated, unsteady on his feet.

When Elias said he asked for Cox's driver's license, "he told me he was going to blow," Elias' report said. "I was concerned he was going to fight with us."

Cox told officers he meant he was going to blow a zero on their breathalyzer machine that measures a person's blood-alcohol level.

During a field sobriety test, police said Cox was uncooperative and unable to follow their orders, Elias wrote in his report. Elias noted that Cox mentioned he had been a military police officer, which Elias said also alarmed him, and he was concerned Cox was armed and reaching for a weapon.

"I know people in the military and military police are given special training in forms of combat," Elias wrote. "His overall demeanor, alcohol, the fact he hadn't been searched and comments about being in the military caused me great concern for my safety, as well as the safety of my cover officers."

Unable to get Cox to do the walking sobriety test, Elias said he motioned to Officer Robert Bruders to take Cox into custody.

"To keep (Cox) from assaulting my cover officers and myself, I pushed his head to the ground in an attempt to pin it to the ground," Elias wrote. "The amount of force we were using wasn't overcoming his combative resistance."

Bruders, who punched Cox repeatedly, wrote in his report that Cox was not following police directions during an attempted field sobriety test, told police he "knew what to do" and that he was a military police officer in the military previously. Bruders also got alarmed by Cox' reference to military police.

"I know that military police are trained in hand-to-hand combat and ground fighting techniques,"

"These disciplines teach a person how to resist another's efforts to restrain them."

Bruders described Cox as resisting their efforts to handcuff him and said he was concerned Cox was going for a weapon. "Because he was escalating his violence, we had to escalate our response to his violence," Bruders wrote.

Bruders said he decided that "controlled blows with my left hand" was the best option to control Cox since pepper spray was out of the question in such close quarters with other officers present and a third officer had her Taser out.

"I continued to deliver controlled blows to his head and order him to put his hands behind his back," Bruders wrote. "After about six blows, I was finally able to work his left arm out from under him and saw that he did not have a weapon in it."

Officer Sarah Kerwin fired the Taser at Cox's back because he was refusing to bring his arms out from under his body while on the ground, and allow police to handcuff him,

.

The Kafourys said Cox was never in the military police.

Police internal affairs found no wrongdoing by the police involved.

"Internal Affairs reviewed all reports, the entire video of the incident (not just the defense attorney's clip) and interviewed three independent witnesses, including a police chaplain,'' said Sgt. Pete Simpson, bureau spokesman.

The police chaplain was on a ride-along with Elias that night, police reports show.

"The preliminary investigation found that the reports and video were consistent and the officers actions were within Bureau policy and State law,'' Simpson said. "Further investigation was declined as it was determined that the officers involved had not committed any misconduct.''

Simpson said the Independent Police Review Division's staff concurred with police. Both police internal affairs and the Independent Police Review Division sent letters to Cox, "thoroughly explaining the investigation and reason for the declination,'' Simpson said.

Cox, who was making $33 an hour as an iron worker at the time, was forced to give up his job because of his shoulder injury, and is now out of work, Jason Kafoury said.

The suit seeks $400,000 in non-economic damages, $120,000 in lost income and benefits and $25,000 for medical expenses.

--Maxine Bernstein