JACKSON, MI - A man is suing a Jackson police officer for violating his constitutional rights, including his liberty to say "f--- you."

Officer Thomas Tinklepaugh, investigating an August 2015 complaint about a dog defecating on open lots, told Tracy Leroy Smith to stop swearing in front of children.

"F--- you. F--- you. F---- you," Smith responded, prompting Tinkelpaugh to arrest Smith, according to the lawsuit, filed Thursday, Aug. 17, in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

"While the particular four-letter word being litigated here is perhaps more distasteful than most others of its genre, it is nevertheless often true that one man's vulgarity is another's lyric, and our law has clearly established this word as constitutionally protected speech," states the document, signed by Jackson lawyers Robert Gaecke Jr. and John Kobrin Jr.

The lawsuit further contends Tinklepaugh inappropriately ordered Smith to stop swearing; used excessive, unreasonable force; and falsely imprisoned and assaulted and battered Smith, who spent two days in jail before being released on a conditional bond.

As of late Friday afternoon, Jackson Director of Police and Fire Services Elmer Hitt said Tinklepaugh had not been served with any lawsuit. Hitt had few details about the case and said he was unlikely to comment on pending litigation. An effort to reach Tinklepaugh was not successful.

The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office, upon Tinklepaugh's request, charged Smith with a felony offense, assaulting, resisting or obstructing an officer, the lawsuit states.

A Jackson County district judge, however, found there was no probable cause for the arrest and dismissed the charge after a preliminary examination.

The prosecutor's office then appealed the decision to the county circuit court, where a judge rejected the prosecution's argument that probable cause for arrest could have existed. Smith not only used bad language but interfered with Tinklepaugh's questioning of Michelle Barlond-Smith, Smith's wife, about the licensing of their dogs, and might have violated the city's noise ordinance, the prosecuction contended.

Prosecutors then sought an opinion from the Michigan Court of Appeals, but the higher court refused to hear the case.

"Five state court judges all agreed that Defendant Tinklepaugh had no probable cause to arrest Plaintiff Tracy Smith," the lawsuit states.

"The issue of whether... Tinklepaugh had any possible factual basis that would constitute probable cause to arrest... Smith was fully and fairly litigated in state court and determined by a valid and final judgement."

Tinklepaugh had been called on Aug. 19, 2015 to Rockwell Street, where a woman complained a person resembling Tracy Smith was letting his dog defecate near her home, attracting mice.

The officer then headed to Smith's home, just around the corner, on Williams Street. Michelle Barlond-Smith was in the driveway and while Tinklepaugh was speaking to her, Tracy Smith started taking pictures. He said he intended never to clean up after his dogs, the lawsuit reports.

"I'm tired of this s---," he said, according to their recorded interaction.

Tinklepaugh chastised Smith. Instead of starting a conversation with "f--- you get off my property," the officer said, maybe it would be better if Tracy Smith brought to Tinklepaugh an apparent concern about "narcotic action" in the neighborhood.

"Well, f--- you," Smith responded.

While Tracy Smith's wife answered Tinklepaugh's questions about the couple's dogs, her husband continued cursing at the officer.

He refuses to oblige Tinklepaugh, who threatened to arrest him for being disorderly, and a video shows Tinklepaugh "slams" Smith onto the hood of the police vehicle. A struggle ensued and Tinklepaugh took Smith to the ground, according to the lawsuit.

Tracy Smith later went to what is now Henry Ford Allegiance Health for emergency medical treatment, the document states.

Tinklepaugh initially indicated he arrested Smith for "swearing in front of children."

The Michigan Court of Appeals in 2002 struck down a vague, 105-year-old Michigan indecency statute prohibiting such behavior. It stemmed from the ticketing of a so-called cussing canoeist in Arenac County in northeastern Michigan.

In court, Tinklepaugh said he detained Smith for being a disorderly person by "causing a contention."