Smashed pumpkin - Flickr.jpg

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UPDATE: A jury on Thursday, March 2, 2017, ruled against Officer Neidig and awarded Shane McGuire $75,000 for his civil rights claim and more than $51,000 in compensatory damages, KDKA-TV reports.

A federal civil rights trial is underway for the Pittsburgh police officer accused of punching, head-butting and breaking the nose of a teenager he spotted smashing pumpkins a few weeks after Halloween 2012.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the lawsuit alleges that Officer Colby Neidig spotted the plaintiff, then 16 years old, and a group of friends smashing pumpkins along Cassabill Drive in New Homestead on Nov. 12 of that year.

The suit says an angry Neidig gave chase and wound up tackling and assaulting then 16-year-old Shane McGuire, who was one of the youths involved. McGuire filed his lawsuit in 2014 and testimony began in the case on Wednesday.

Now in his 20s, McGuire's lawyers maintain the officer overreacted to what was ultimately a case of kids being kids. (A more complete retelling of their encounter can be found in this 2016 court ruling denying Office Neidig's motion for summary judgment in the case.)

But according to the Post-Gazette, Neidig's defense claims the officer, his wife and one-year-old child had just returned from a shopping trip when McGuire "ran up to their house and began pounding violently on the door."

The defense claims McGuire quickly ran away and that Officer Neidig gave chase through nearby woods until he caught up with McGuire, who then tried to fight him.

According to the defense, an off-duty Officer Neidig and McGuire grappled and McGuire tried to punch and kick the officer. The defense says this prompted Officer Neidig to punch McGuire once to subdue him, and that Neidig then walked McGuire to a nearby house to call 911.

Per the Post-Gazette, the defense argues McGuire "caused his own problems by vandalizing property, banging on the door, running, refusing to stop and then trying to fight with the officer."

Meanwhile, Neidig's trial gets underway as police nationwide are facing greater scrutiny than perhaps ever before for their actions both in uniform and out of it.

Just last week, an off-duty LAPD officer's encounter with a group of school children sparked violent protests in Anaheim, California after video surfaced that purports to show the officer firing his gun during a struggle with members of the group.

The officer reportedly confronted the students for walking on his lawn and later claimed a 13-year-old boy at the center of the incident had threatened to shoot him. That officer is currently on administrative leave while authorities investigate.

There was also the case of a Texas police corporal who responded in uniform to a disturbance at a Dallas-area pool party in 2015 and was caught on video slamming and pinning a young black woman to the ground. That woman filed a federal lawsuit against the officer, City of McKinney and its police department last month alleging excessive force and that she was held without probable cause. She also claims the encounter amounted to a violation of her constitutional and civil rights.

It is an identical argument to that being used by McGuire in his case against Officer Neidig in Pittsburgh. And as that trial continues, both sides will rely on competing accounts of how the incident unfolded and who was to blame. This as it appears no firsthand video of the encounter exists.

At trial, the defense will seek to portray McGuire as an instigator who now sees an opportunity to profit off the incident. Meanwhile, McGuire's lawyers will argue that Officer Neidig acted carelessly and abusively in response to what was meant to be a harmless prank.

In a November 2014 article, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said charges were filed against McGuire after the incident in juvenile court. But the paper said those charges were later dropped.