CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland paid out $100,000 earlier this year to a city resident to settle an excessive force lawsuit brought against an officer involved in the Tamir Rice shooting.

The settlement, reached in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, involved Cleveland Patrolman Frank Garmback and stemmed from a 2010 confrontation he had with Tamela Eaton while the officer and his partner were tracking a slaying suspect near West 112th and Clifton Boulevard, records show.

To some, the case was hardly clear, as county prosecutors charged Eaton with punching the officer and resisting arrest. A county jury later acquitted her. She filed the federal suit two years later, and the city settled with her in March.

The settlement did not appear in Garmback's personnel file. It was, however, in a listing the city gave The Plain Dealer late Wednesday stemming from a public records request the newspaper had filed months ago. The listing included payments the city made to settle lawsuits brought against officers.

Garmback has been a police officer with the city since 2008.

Eaton's attorneys, Steven Bradley and Mark Marein, said in federal court documents that the confrontation with Garmback and officer Tim Guerra happened like this:

On Aug. 7, 2010, Eaton, who was 39 at the time, returned to her home to find a car parked in front of her driveway on Clifton Boulevard. She called Cleveland police and to have a tow-truck sent. Eaton then got ready for bed.

Unbeknownst to Eaton, Cleveland police had been sent to Eaton's neighborhood to find a suspect in a slaying. Garmback and Guerra found a man and woman walking down the street. The officers quickly arrested the man, despite the woman's loud protests, according to documents Bradley and Marein filed.

Eaton came out of her home and believed that the officers were responding to her complaint of the car blocking her driveway. The lawsuit said Eaton did not want the person arrested for her complaint.

The suit said Garmback initially argued with Eaton. It said Garmback then "rushed (Eaton) and placed her in a chokehold, tackled her to the ground, twisted her wrist and began hitting her body. Officer Guerra rushed over and proceeded to punch Tamela Eaton in the face multiple times.''

The suit said "such reckless, wanton and willful excessive use of force proximately caused bodily injury to (Eaton).''

But county prosecutors placed the blame with Eaton. In court documents, authorities said Eaton interfered with officers as they attempted to check the homicide suspect. They said Eaton punched Garmback in the mouth. When the officers attempted to place her under arrest, she "continued to swing at them and resist.''

In November 2010, a Cuyahoga County jury in a trial acquitted Eaton. Nearly two years later, Eaton sued the officers.

Twelve days ago, Garmback drove a police cruiser to the Cudell Recreation Center involving a report of a person waving what appeared to be a gun. He and officer Timothy Loehmann pulled up on Tamir, a 12-year-old boy who had a pellet gun.

Loehmann, according to authorities and a video made at the scene, shot and killed the boy seconds after they pulled up to him. Police officials said the officers warned the youth to show his hands.

Repeated attempts to reach Eaton were unsuccessful. Her attorneys, Marein and Bradley, could not be reached for comment. A city spokesman also could not be reached.

Jo Ellen Corrigan, The Plain Dealer's news researcher, contributed to this story.