A former Trenton police officer fired after investigations into his use of force in three incidents in 2017 is being sued by one of the men he is accused of assaulting.

Salaam Felton was chased and arrested by officers including Anthony Villanueva, and was then beaten so badly he suffered bleeding on the brain and other injuries, the lawsuit said.

The incident was the first of three in 2017 that sparked questions about Villanueva’s use of force. After the third incident, he was suspended and investigated by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and then the FBI. No charges have ever been filed.

The department fired Villanueva in 2018 but he’s appealing the decision, his lawyer says.

NJ Advance Media obtained body camera and police station video footage of the incidents through public records requests in 2018.

Felton’s lawsuit, filed in Mercer County Superior Court this past Thursday names as defendants Villanueva, Officer Sh’quanah Lopez, and unnamed “John Doe” officers, as well as former Police Director Ernest Parrey Jr., Capt. Stephen Varn and the City of Trenton.

The lawsuit called the chase and beating in March of 2017 “unprovoked.” Police at the time said that officers started chasing a man because they were investigating a shots fired call and saw him running nearby, clutching his waistband. They said the man tossed away a handgun as he led Villanueva on a chase through backyards and over fences.

According to Villanueva’s body camera video, the officer then came upon Felton walking on a street and ran up behind him, punching him several times in the head and taking him to the ground.

"What are you punching me for, yo?" Felton says as Villanueva cuffs him on the sidewalk.

The video also captured Villanueva bragging about the arrest later on the phone.

“He did not see me coming,” Villanueva says on the call, the audio recorded on his running body camera. “He thought he got away.”

"I snuck up from behind him and just punched him, he just fell," Villanueva says, mocking Felton by quoting him, "You didn't got to punch me man."

Felton’s suit said he never resisted, threatened or harmed the officers. The prosecutor’s office dropped the charges against him.

The second force incident that authorities investigated involving Villanueva in 2017 took place in April. Chanzie Washington, then 36, was pulled over after running a red light and fled, swimming across the D&R Canal to avoid arrest.

Body camera footage shows that police eventually had Washington at gunpoint, with his hands up, on the other side of a fence. Then, Villanueva, who’d gotten on the side with Washington, launches toward him and delivered a roundhouse punch to the head, leading to a scuffle that involved several officers, the video shows.

The charges against Washington were dismissed too.

(Clips from these two incidents are shown at the top of the story in one video, with Washington’s arrest first and Felton’s arrest starting at 0:38 seconds in.)

The third incident, captured on Trenton Police Department security cameras, took place in November of 2017. Villanueva, working in the station’s detention area, tried to get a prisoner, Quaree Singletary, then 24, to end his phone call. They started struggling there and the skirmish picked up against after they got Singletary back to the cell blocks.

In The Force Report, a 16-month NJ Advance Media investigation encompassing use of force by every police department in the state, Villanueva appears six times. The project includes use of force reports from 2012 through 2016, and Villanueva was hired in 2015.

Trenton police officers who used force, the Force Report found, used force an average of 5.6 times per officer over five years. The state average was 4.1 over five years.

Fleton’s lawsuit claims that the City of Trenton, Parrey and Varn are liable because they failed to have proper policies, training and disciplinary systems in place, and should have known officers were acting inappropriately.

His attorney, Robin Lord of Trenton, said officers like Villanueva engage in excessive force because of Trenton’s “pattern and practice of sweeping all allegations of excessive force under the rug.”

“They need to start holding more officers accountable,” she said. “And not just when they get caught on tape.”

A request for comment from the Trenton Police Department was not returned Tuesday. George Dougherty, who is representing Villanueva in his attempts to be reinstated, declined to comment on this lawsuit.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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