AMHERST – The University of Massachusetts senior who has filed a lawsuit against Amherst police officers still wants to be a police officer himself, according to the Boston-based lawyer who filed the suit Tuesday in US. District Court in Springfield.

David Milton filed the suit on behalf of UMass senior Thomas Donovan, alleging police assaulted and falsely arrested him for recording video of them during last year's Blarney Blowout in March. Milton is a member of the Law Offices of Howard Friedman, which specializes in civil rights and police misconduct litigation.

In an email, Milton said Donovan, a 22-year-old legal studies major, would "still like to be a police officer. He has great respect for upright and honest police officers and wants to dedicate his life to public service.

"He filed this lawsuit because he believes that police officers should be held accountable for discrediting the profession by violating the Constitution they are sworn to protect. This belief should not disqualify him from being a police officer."

Donovan is not talking to reporters now, Milton said.

The suit names Jesus Arocho, Andrew Hulse and John Does 1 through 3 as defendants.

According to the suit, "Mr. Donovan recorded Amherst police using what appeared to be too much force while making an arrest. Although Mr. Donovan filmed the officers from behind a fence, at a safe distance, and did not interfere with them, an officer wearing full riot gear and carrying a pepper-ball gun--believed to be Defendant Andrew Hulse--approached Mr. Donovan to prevent him from filming. When Mr. Donovan did not stop filming, another officer pepper sprayed him at close range.

"Mr. Donovan continued to film until, a few seconds later, Defendant Jesus Arocho knocked the phone out of his hand and threw him to the ground. Defendant Arocho, assisted by Defendant Andrew Hulse, placed Mr. Donovan under arrest," the suit charges.

Amherst police repeatedly stomped on the phone in a failed attempt to destroy it, according to the suit.

Donovan was charged with disorderly conduct and failure to disperse a riot, and was cleared of all charges in November, Milton said. His firm wanted to wait until that case was wrapped up before filing the suit.

While Hulse was hired in Amherst in 2012, Arocho has been with the department since 1999.

In 2011, he received a certificate of appreciation from the Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools during their Latino Achievement Night.

He has been involved in the Amherst schools, assisting in the CHAMPS mentoring program, High School RAD, the Youth Adventure Academy, the Ropes Adventure Course, and coordinated several cultural events at UMass that students and police officers attended together.

The law firm, meanwhile, representing Donovan has been involved in a number of lawsuits in Western Massachusetts. In July, the Law Offices of Howard Friedman filed a lawsuit against the state to receive compensation for Charles Wilhite of Springfield for being wrongfully convicted of murder and spending 40 months behind bars.

The firm also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in January of last year on behalf of Wilhite against city police officers Anthony Pioggia and Steven Tatro and the City of Springfield. Wilhite was convicted of murder and then acquitted in a new trial in 2013.

The office also filed suit in 2011 in the U.S. District Court on behalf of two former inmates from the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center, saying they were strip searched while male correctional officers videotaped them.

In the class action suit against Hampden Sheriff Michael J. Ashe and Patricia Murphy, superintendent of the jail, the women allege their Fourth Amendment rights to reasonable searches were violated, according to the suit filed.