FULLERTON – A false police report set in motion the series of events that ended with half a dozen Fullerton officers tackling and beating an unarmed homeless man to death, according to a newly filed lawsuit.

Police have said from the beginning that they were responding to a report of a man trying to open car doors when they confronted Kelly Thomas last July. They have never publicly identified where that report came from, although rumors have long pointed to the Slidebar Rock-n-Roll Kitchen.

A bouncer who was fired from the Slidebar now claims in a lawsuit that a manager called police that evening and falsely claimed that Thomas was breaking into cars. Michael Reeves says in his suit that Thomas was really doing nothing more than picking up cigarette butts.

VIDEO: Protesters picket the Slidebar

Slidebar owner Jeremy Popoff said an employee of the bar did call police from her cellphone that night. He declined to say what she reported, citing the open criminal case against two of the officers involved.

He said the call was taped and has been reviewed by all sides as part of the criminal investigation into Thomas’ death. He said he hopes the details of the call come out at trial – “I’m 100 percent confident that when it does, all this will be satisfied,” he said.

The Slidebar refuted Reeves’ claims of a false report as “completely frivolous.” Its attorney said he had been in contact with federal authorities after Reeves demanded money to keep the lawsuit out of court.

The Slidebar’s back patio looks onto the parking lot of the Fullerton transit center, where officers stopped Kelly Thomas on the evening of July 5.

On Thursday, about a dozen protesters ringed the patio to denounce what they described as the club’s role in Thomas’s death.

“My son was beaten and murdered because of this phone call,” Kelly’s father Ron said.

The Slidebar fired Reeves last year after he confronted a manager in front of customers, according to a statement from its attorney. Reeves said in his lawsuit that he was fired because he cooperated with the district attorney’s investigation into the death of Kelly Thomas.

He wants at least $4 million, according to his lawsuit.

He claims that Popoff, the bar owner, had a policy of chasing away homeless people such as Thomas – a claim that Popoff denied through his attorney as “insulting and horrific … absurd.”

Reeves says managers at the Slidebar were told to “call the police and do anything necessary” to keep Thomas away. When he showed up on the evening of July 5, Reeves claims, a manager called police and reported that he was trying to breaking into cars to ensure a quick police response.

The manager’s “blatantly false statement” made police think they were responding to a crime in progress, Reeves claims in the suit. That confusion “gave way to greater confusion and ended only after it was too late,” he says.

Police have said officers stopped Thomas as they investigated a car break-in report, and that he struggled when they tried to arrest him. A surveillance video captured two officers hitting him with batons and then wrestling with Thomas; four other officers arrived and held him down as some officers struck him and at least one shocked him with a Taser.

Thomas lost consciousness and died five days later. One of the officers, Manuel Ramos, has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with Thomas’ death. Another, Jay Cicinelli, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

The four other officers were put on leave but have not been charged.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3777 or dirving@ocregister.com