A Dover police sergeant seen on a recent video repeatedly punching a teenage suspect in the face has been embroiled in several lawsuits — including one involving a similar incident several years ago when he was accused of breaking a man's jaw during an arrest.

Sgt. Michael Pier and two other Dover officers have been placed on paid administrative leave as state law enforcement authorities investigate their actions during the arrest on May 19.

Pier is seen in a video yelling “stop resisting” as he punched a 19-year-old suspect who was pinned to the ground and had covered his face with his hands.

Several years ago, Pier was accused of striking a Dover man about eight times while yelling “stop resisting.” The suit alleged that Pier jumped on the man's back after he'd fallen to the ground. The man later dismissed his complaints against Pier and other Dover police officers, and the lawsuit was settled by Morris County.

Pier was accused in another lawsuit of negligence in the death of a motorcyclist who led police on a high-speed chase. Dover settled the lawsuit, but the former chief of the department, Harold "Butch" Valentine, said Pier was not at fault.

And Pier has filed his own lawsuit against Dover officials, including Mayor James Dodd, alleging that Pier was passed over for a promotion in retaliation for reporting another police officer’s misconduct and for backing Valentine in his unsuccessful bid to become mayor.

The recent arrest raises questions about how much force police officers may use to restrain suspects and the accountability of law enforcement officials who conduct internal affairs investigations, often without making them public.

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The May 19 arrest is being investigated by a unit of the state attorney general's office created to handle “sensitive matters” that include allegations of civil rights’ violations made against police officers.

On May 19, police had been looking for Cyprian Luke, a Morristown man for whom there was an arrest warrant, after receiving a tip that he was in Dover. Luke had previously been charged with assault and violating a restraining order. Dover police additionally charged him with resisting arrest.

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Whenever police officers use force on the job — discharging a weapon or using physical coercion — they must file a "use-of-force report," which is a public document.

When asked by NorthJersey.com for use-of-force reports related to the May 19 arrest, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office said that "specific threats" had been made "concerning the officers' safety" — and redacted their names from the reports. It declined to provide details about the threats.

The office also declined, along with Dover officials, to provide information about any prior investigations into incidents involving Pier.

Pier’s attorney, Bob Galantucci, said his client’s actions during the recent arrest were justified, adding that there were “serious threats to the police officers.”

“They took what actions they needed to take in order to protect themselves,” Galantucci said. “They used as much force as they needed to — the video shows there was a need.”

The video shows Pier punching Luke as he is being held on the ground by several officers. The video was taken by one of Luke’s friends and posted on social media. One of the officers appeared to be sitting on Luke as Pier instructed the teenager to roll over.

“I don’t think he was a threat to the officer,” said Mary Luke, Cyprian’s mother. “He can’t roll over because one person is on his stomach, and the other one’s holding his hands, and then Officer Pier’s punching him.”

Some onlookers taunted the officers. When Pier yelled at Luke to stop resisting, someone in the crowd said, “He’s not resisting.” Pier responded: “Look at his hands.”

Luke had his right hand clenched in a fist and held it at times with his left hand. In video clips posted online, he did not attempt to strike the officers, and instead put his hands in front of his face to block Pier’s punches.

“He’s not resisting, and he has no means to turn over because an officer’s on top of him,” said Richard Rivera, a former West New York police officer who is an expert on law enforcement practices. “It’s physically impossible to comply with the officer’s command — and the officers don’t realize that because this is an intense situation.”

He said it is "not uncommon" for police officers not to realize in the heat of the moment that a suspect is unable to comply with their commands. He said he does not believe it was necessary to punch Luke, based on the video footage he viewed, although he added that “obviously we don’t have the whole story.”

“You see the guy’s two hands out in front of him,” Rivera said of Luke. “He’s not presenting an imminent danger. Officers are trained that it’s the hands that will kill you. If the hands are a danger, then control the hands."

Rivera said "the priority should be de-escalating" such confrontations. The state attorney general's use-of-force guidelines “are very broad strokes” that give officers some leeway, he said. But they are required to justify their actions, noting that blows to the head can cause "serious bodily injury," he said.

Under the guidelines, "striking with the hands or feet" is in the same category as wrist and arm locks or wrestling someone to the ground — physical force that is allowed “when necessary to overcome a subject’s physical resistance.”

However, officers are further guided by "overarching principles of policing," said Wayne Fisher, a senior policy adviser with Rutgers University's Center on Policing. He said he could not comment on the Dover case because he had not seen the video.

"Only the minimum amount of force necessary should be used," Fisher said. "An intentional strike to the head has to be judiciously used because the potential for injury goes beyond wrestling someone to the ground."

Valentine, who retired in 2015, defended Pier's actions, and said that he is “a stand-up guy, well-mannered, a good cop.”

“I believe Michael was effecting a lawful arrest and acted appropriately,” Valentine said. “You’re allowed to use force to effect an arrest. Mike used enough force to overcome the resistance.”

The results of internal affairs investigations into use of force often are not available to the public.

A Morris County Prosecutor's Office spokesman said the agency "does not provide dispositions" in response to a request for information about prior investigations of Pier. Law enforcement officials declined to say whether investigations were conducted or what was determined, and did not provide records related to the incidents.

Pier said in an arrest affidavit about the May 19 incident that Luke initially tried to run away and attempted to bite him.

“I felt his teeth come in contact with a couple of fingers,” Pier wrote. “I then yelled at him not to bite me.”

Luke was still standing at that point. Pier wrote that officers pulled him to the ground and that Luke continued to resist by keeping “his arms tensed and under his body.” The videos posted online only show Luke when he is already on the ground.

In the affidavit, Pier did not mention punching Luke. He wrote that he and another officer suffered abrasions to their hands and knees, and that he had elbow pain.

Four officers were involved in restraining Luke, according to reports released by the Prosecutor's Office.

Three Dover officers reported using hands or fists, including Pier, who was the only officer seen punching Luke in the video. One patrol officer reported that he used pepper spray, while another used a knee.

A Morris County park police officer, seen on video giving his badge number when asked by an onlooker, reported using a "compliance hold."

Pier has been at the center of lawsuits related to two other incidents.

In 2007, he was involved in an accident that killed a motorcyclist who had been leading police on a high-speed chase. Pier was accused in a lawsuit of running a stop sign. Dover reportedly paid $75,000 to settle the suit.

Valentine, Pier’s boss at the time, said he didn't run a stop sign, but was heading back to headquarters when hepulled his police SUV onto Route 46 after another department called off the pursuit. The motorcycle, he said, struck Pier's vehicle's on the driver's-side rear door.

The Prosecutor’s Office determined that there were no skid marks and the impact lifted Pier's cruiser off the ground, indicating the motorcyclist, whose headlights were off, made no attempt to stop, according to a report published in the Daily Record.

“There was no administrative action taken against Michael in that case because he wasn’t at fault,” Valentine said.

Years later, Pier was accused in a federal lawsuit of repeatedly punching a Dover man who was being arrested in 2015 as a suspect in a burglary.

The suit alleges that after falling to the ground, the man, Christopher Kotz, “gave himself up ... and put his hands behind his back.” At that point Pier jumped on his back and began punching him, the suit says. Kotz was not resisting arrest when other officers arrived and struck him "on other parts of his body," according to the suit.

Kotz suffered a broken jaw, a shattered cheekbone and a fracture of bones around an eye, according to court papers. He was treated in an emergency room but suffered “permanent facial disfigurement” after Morris County jail officials waited three weeks before transporting him to a hospital for needed surgery, the suit alleged.

The suit was settled in 2017 by Morris County. Months earlier, Kotz had dismissed his complaints against Pier, the other officers and the town of Dover.

Kotz, now in the Morris County jail after allegedly violating drug court probation, declined to discuss the lawsuit. Attorneys who have represented him did not respond to messages seeking comment.

In 2017, Pier filed suit against Dover, alleging he was the subject of retaliation by police and town officials for reporting another officer's misconduct and for supporting Valentine's challenge to Dodd in the 2015 Democratic primary election.

Pier said in court documents that he was known as “one of ‘Butchie’s boys from upstairs” and was skipped over for a promotion to lieutenant.

"The town looks forward to adequately defending this case," Dover's administrator, Donald Travisano, said last week, adding that he could not comment further about a pending lawsuit.

In recent years Dover has settled at least four other federal lawsuits brought by members of the police department who alleged retaliation by superiors, according to court records. It paid a little more than $800,000 to settle two of them, according to published reports.