Oakland police sued in Occupy beating Video of Oakland protest shows teacher being hit

A college instructor and activist from Marin County who was thrown to the ground by police and struck twice with a baton during an Occupy protest in Oakland - an incident captured on video and posted to YouTube - has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Video footage of the Jan. 28 incident does not show what happened before Robert Ovetz was pulled from a crowd of demonstrators outside the YMCA on Broadway.

But it does show that Ovetz was not resisting when an officer - identified in the lawsuit as Ercivan Martin - hit him in the abdomen and back with a baton.

Ovetz, a 35-year-old Woodacre resident who has taught sociology and other courses at Cañada College in Redwood City and College of Marin in Kentfield, was arrested and jailed for three days on suspicion of felony assault on a police officer, among other things.

Alameda County prosecutors filed only a misdemeanor obstruction charge, then dismissed the case entirely on June 22, saying they were dropping the case in the interests of justice. They declined to elaborate.

The lawsuit, filed at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Thursday, says Ovetz did not resist either physically or verbally and was the victim of excessive force, false arrest and assault and battery.

It names the city as a defendant as well as Officer Martin, Police Chief Howard Jordan and two other officers who took part in Ovetz's arrest.

Ovetz said he suffered a large bruise on his abdomen and damaged two teeth during the arrest, and was treated at the emergency room of Highland Hospital in Oakland.

His lawsuit quoted from a police declaration explaining his arrest. The declaration alleged that Ovetz pushed his bicycle in front of a line of officers, then lifted it as if to throw it, prompting an officer to grab the bike.

"Subject then got in front of officers and began waving his arms and hands in officers' faces," the declaration stated. "Subject ordered to stop. Subject continued. Subject arrested for obstructing and delaying and resisting the officer."

The Police Department did not respond to questions about Martin's job status, and efforts to reach Martin were unsuccessful.

Alex Katz, a spokesman for the Oakland city attorney's office, said officials needed time to review the lawsuit and were not prepared to comment on it.

Ovetz was arrested during a raucous demonstration called "move-in day." He was among hundreds of people who were corralled by police outside the YMCA after Occupy activists tried unsuccessfully to take over the vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center earlier in the day.

His attorney, Matthew Siroka, said Ovetz had been observing the demonstration as part of research into a book on why protest movements have turned violent in the United States.

The video was shot on an iPhone by Jordan Towers, a 28-year-old veterans' advocate from San Francisco. He said in an interview that he was violently thrown to the ground and arrested moments after Ovetz, but was never charged.

Demian Bulwa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: dbulwa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @demianbulwa