CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The ousted Olmsted Falls police chief filed a lawsuit against the city's mayor and interim police chief claiming they defamed him when they claimed in August news release that he helped frame the mayor in a domestic violence case.

Former Chief Daniel Gilles claims the announcement from Mayor Ann Marie Donegan included "patently false" statements from interim police Chief William Traine, whom Gilles believes was illegally appointed to his position, the suit says.

Gilles also accused Donegan of violating a confidential settlement he signed with the city a month after his 2016 firing over the handling of the domestic violence case involving the mayor.

The 13-page complaint, filed late Wednesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas, is the latest development in the now years-long saga marred by claims of vendettas and retribution from both sides.

Donegan and Traine could not be immediately reached for comment.

Traine, appointed by Donegan as interim chief after Gilles was fired, said at an Aug. 31 news conference that Gilles and former Lt. Carmen Battaglia conspired to push domestic violence charges against Donegan in 2015 in retaliation for her efforts to reform the department. He also accused the former chief of withholding evidence.

Donegan was charged, but the case was eventually dismissed after a judge ruled an audio recording of Donegan's 11-year-old son talking to a relative was inadmissible evidence. Earlier this year she received $450,000 as part of a settlement with the city.

Traine also said that an internal investigation turned up evidence that the former officers could be charged with tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice, but said Donegan did not want them prosecuted.

Gilles in his lawsuit said it was Donegan who had a personal vendetta against the police department, but did not offer an explanation for why she held such animus for the department.

Once the charges against Donegan were dismissed, she launched a "campaign of harassment, hostility, unprofessionalism and outright hatred" against the department and imposed more reforms, the lawsuit says.

He claims the allegations in the Aug. 31 announcement were false and meant to cover up the release of public records to the police department's union in a grievance filed over Donegan's treatment of officers. He also accuses Donegan of ordering the announcement to promote her re-election campaign in the November primary election.

The department's claims against Gilles were malicious and made with the intent to harm his reputation in the community, the lawsuit says.

Gilles also claims that Traine's comments and the news release broke terms of a confidential settlement that Gilles entered into with the city of Olmsted Falls when he left the department in the summer of 2016. Part of the agreement was that Donegan or any other Olmsted Falls employee were not to "engage in any false, derogatory, negative or disparaging comments" about Gilles.

The suit also accuses Donegan of illegally hiring Traine as a volunteer reserve officer and appointing him to interim chief of police without ratification from City Council or the city's Civil Service Commission.

Gilles is represented by attorney Michael O'Shea, who is also the prosecutor in Rocky River. His case was assigned to Common Pleas Court Judge Janet Burnside on Thursday.

To comment on this story, please visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.