Johnny Cardona, the deputy inspector at centre of allegation by Felix Rivera Pitre, is believed to have been caught on video dishing out rough treatment to another New York protester

A lawyer acting on behalf of an Occupy Wall Street protester who was allegedly assaulted by a New York police officer on Friday has called for an investigation into the behaviour of the deputy inspector involved after video evidence appeared to show the same officer engaging in the rough handling of a woman protester in an earlier incident.

Ron Kuby, a Manhattan-based criminal defence lawyer who specialises in cases of alleged police brutality, has written to the New York district attorney Cyrus Vance calling for a "full, complete and lengthy investigation" into Friday's incident. He said that his client, Felix Rivera Pitre, would co-operate fully with any such investigation.

Video footage of the scuffle first posted by the Gothamist website appears to show the white-shirted police officer grabbing Rivera from behind, swinging him round and then punching him in the face. Rivera falls to the ground, suggesting that the punch had considerable impact.

The officer has been identified in news reports as deputy inspector Johnny Cardona. Over the weekend, new video evidence emerged relating to an earlier controversy which also appears to have involved Cardona.

The video, analysed by a law student in Florida aligned to Occupy Wall Street called Charlie Grapski , shows a white-shirted officer whose badge bears the name Cardona. He reaches over an orange fence that is being used by police to kettle a group of woman protesters.

He then grabs one of the women, pulls her to the ground and drags her forcefully underneath the fence, after which she is arrested.

Soon after that incident, a separate police officer, deputy inspector Anthony Bologna, walked up to the remaining women in the kettle and pepper-sprayed them in the face. That was also caught on camera and has become one of the most notorious images of the policing of Occupy Wall Street.

The NYPD has neither confirmed nor denied the identity of Cardona as the officer involved in both incidents. A senior police spokesman, Paul Browne, said Rivera was wanted for questioning for allegedly having provoked the confrontation in the first place by trying to elbow a police officer, which the officer then responded by deflecting.

Browne said: "Others in the crowd jumped on the officer when he tried to apprehend the suspect. When the officer got to his feet, he was sprayed in the face with an unknown liquid coming from the suspect's direction."

Kuby told the Guardian there was no evidence that his client had done anything wrong. Even if he had made the first move, the lawyer said, nothing could have justified the police officer's response.

"There are a lot of ways to make an arrest that are acceptable in the NYPD's rulebook, and as far as I know sucker-punching someone with a right hook is not one of them."

In his letter to Vance, Kuby urged the New York authorities to leave Rivera alone. "On the off chance they were intending to arrest him for injuring the captain's fist with his jaw, I strongly suggest that you decide not to add insult to injury and avoid such a retaliatory move."