Minneapolis cop Jason Andersen — the officer at the center of the 2006 shooting of Fong Lee — was indicted by a federal grand jury today on a criminal civil rights charge.

Andersen is alleged to have kicked a juvenile in the head during an arrest at a park in Crystal in July 2008.

The 33-year-old officer, who joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 2005, is on “home leave.” Chief of Police Tim Dolan fired him last year after he was involved in a domestic dispute at his Big Lake home, but the charges against him were dropped and an arbitrator ruled the city was wrong to fire him.

When he tried to return to work, though, a superior ordered him to take a drug test. The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis objected, saying the department had no contractual basis to order the test, and a judge agreed with the union.

Still, the department had not returned Andersen to duty.

The indictment returned today by a federal grand jury alleges deprivation of rights under color of law. It claims that on July 25, 2008, Andersen kicked someone identified only as “J.J.” and that the act deprived the person of his “right not to be subjected to unreasonable use of force by a police officer.”

A grand jury has spent much of the year investigating Andersen, who has also been awarded the department’s Medal of Valor, its second-highest honor.

The kicking is alleged to have occurred during the Crystal Frolics, a carnival held every summer. According to police records, a Crystal police officer told a juvenile to pull down his shirt to hide a gang-related belt buckle. Another youth swore at the officer, and the officer told the juvenile he was ordering him from the park.

The youth ran but the officer caught him. The officer said Andersen came up and kicked the youth in the head.

Another Crystal policeman intervened, grabbing Andersen’s arm.

At the time of the incident, Andersen was serving on the Metro Gang Strike Force. A state report later criticized the unit for a variety of misdeeds, including lax record keeping, evidence that disappeared, abuse of people’s rights and other problems.

Andersen, a second-generation law officer, was thrust into controversy over his 2006 shooting of Fong Lee, a 19-year-old Minneapolis man. The officer shot him eight times during a foot chase.

Andersen claimed that Fong Lee was armed and was raising his arm as if to shoot the officer. Police said a pistol was found near the dead man’s body, but the family questioned whether police had put it there.

The family filed a wrongful-death suit in federal court, but in May 2009, a jury in St. Paul ruled Andersen did not use excessive force. Earlier, the police department had cleared Andersen of any wrongdoing, as did a Hennepin County grand jury.

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.