A man admits that he flipped off an Adams County deputy, but he claims that didn’t give the lawman the right to intentionally break his middle finger in retaliation.

Jeffrey Woodfork has sued Adams County Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Wilson accusing him of excessive force and several Adams County jail nurses and their employer, Corizon Health Inc. of Tennessee, claiming the nurses didn’t treat his finger and it healed in a permanently malformed position.

Denver attorney Raymond Bryant filed the lawsuit Tuesday on Woodfork’s behalf in U.S. District Court in Denver. Woodfork is seeking compensation and punitive damages including permanent impairment.

On Dec. 12, 2015, Wilson jumped out of an unmarked vehicle and pointed a gun at Woodfork as he was crossing a street. At the same time, a woman who was with him took off running, the lawsuit says.

When Wilson asked Woodfork the woman’s name, he called the deputy an obscenity and raised his middle finger, the lawsuit says. Wilson handcuffed Woodfork and then grabbed his middle finger and twisted and yanked it until it snapped, the lawsuit says.

Over the next eight weeks, Woodfork repeatedly told jail nurses he believed his red, swollen, malformed middle finger was broken.

Finally, Woodfork was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where doctors confirmed he had a broken finger and that it had healed in a malformed position, the lawsuit says.