The trial has begun in William Wingate’s federal civil rights case against a former East Precinct police officer.

Wingate was was arrested and exonerated after a July 2014 incident at 12th and Pike in which the City of Seattle eventually apologized for the actions of officer Cynthia Whitlatch who took the then 69-year-old black man into custody for allegedly swinging a golf club he used as a cane in a manner the veteran officer said she found threatening.

Whitlatch was eventually fired for “sustained policy violations involving bias, abuse of police discretion, and escalation of a contact” in an Office of Professional Accountability investigation triggered by the arrest and reports of Whitlach’s social media activities:

Hey @SeattlePD, this is your employee, and your responsibility pic.twitter.com/Lzwf9Fiftn — Npha (@DJNphared) January 29, 2015

The City of Seattle has been dropped from the suit after a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Jones that Whitlatch’s actions “didn’t stem from city policies or longstanding practices,” the Seattle Times reports.

According to the lawsuit, Wingate suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome in the wake of the incident and is suing Whitlatch for unspecified monetary damages.