A Florence man has filed a federal civil suit in Denver claiming excessive force against a police chief and sergeant who ordered a police dog to attack him after he was trapped against a car following a foot chase.

Jeffrey Mark Tomlinson’s lawsuit filed Friday on his behalf by Denver attorneys David Lane and Eudoxie Dickey names Florence police Sgt. Sean Humphrey and police Chief Michael De Laurentis as defendants.

Tomlinson, 46, seeks compensatory and punitive damages and attorney’s fees. He is also seeking a court-ordered public apology.

Attempts to reach De Laurentis by phone on Monday were not immediately successful.

Tomlinson acknowledges that during a traffic stop and search of his car on the afternoon of Oct. 30, 2014, he resisted attempts to arrest him. He later pleaded guilty to charges of tampering with physical evidence, possession of a controlled substance and obstructing a peace officer.

When De Laurentis searched Tomlinson by having him put his hands on the hood of his car, the lawman found a pocket knife and a glass pipe used for illegal drug use. Tomlinson’s suit says he asked De Laurentis not to arrest him and attempted to snatch the pipe because he was afraid of being charged with drug possession. He also admits that when De Laurentis tried to arrest him he ran through the middle of Florence and hid in a ditch beneath a bridge.

The lawsuit accuses De Laurentis of disproportionately escalating the search by calling in as many as a dozen police officers and sheriff’s deputies to search for Tomlinson even though he knew Tomlinson was unarmed.

The chief called in Humphrey, the handler for a “ferocious” K-9 named Faroan, a Belgian Malinois. It is the same breed of dog that U.S. Secret Service agents use to guard the White House, the lawsuit says. The chief directed Humphrey to release Faroan on Tomlinson and let him bite the man if necessary, the lawsuit says.

After officers found Tomlinson under a bridge, he ignored an order and ran away again. Tomlinson crossed the town’s main street and hid in weeds near two large oil tanks. He then ran again to a storage building. Tomlinson ran a fourth time from police to the parking lot of Chaps Patio Bar and Grill and hid behind a car.

Once Tomlinson was cornered, Humphrey used excessive force when he released and sicced Faroan on Tomlinson by yelling something that sounded like “Shah,” the lawsuit claims. The dog viciously mauled Tomlinson, biting him three times, leaving gaping wounds and permanent scars on his upper back, shoulder, torso, bicep and shinbone, the suit says.

The lawsuit says that the attacks were ordered even though Tomlinson was unarmed, was 5-feet-4 and weighed 110 pounds and was surrounded by as many as a dozen officers, it says.

Tomlinson acknowledges that after Faroan bit him in the shoulder and Humphrey pulled the dog off of him, he crawled under a car in a fifth attempt to escape.

At that point Humphrey ordered Faroan to bite Tomlinson again. Humphrey also ordered the dog to bite Tomlinson a third time, the lawsuit says.

Faroan died in March 2015 after he had an allergic reaction to pain medication after he chipped a bone his leg while jumping over a fence.