Brian Aitken, the New Jersey man sentenced to seven years in prison last year for possessing legally owned firearms that were unloaded and locked in the trunk of his car, is filing a civil rights suit against the state prosecutors who put him behind bars and the police officers who searched his car without consent, his attorney told The Daily Caller.

Aitken, 27, was convicted of illegally transporting a weapon in August 2010, but was released after four months spent in prison when New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie commuted his sentence to “time served.” (For the full story, read TheDC’s interview with Aitken.)

His attorney, Michael Orozco, sent letters to the Mount Laurel Police Department and the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office Monday to notify them that they would be sued for their behavior in the case, which Orozco claims violated Aitken’s civil rights. The parties have six months to respond.

Orozco is filing suit on Aitken’s behalf under Section 1983 of the federal code, which allows citizens to sue state officials who they believe have violated their rights under federal law. He is claiming damages for the two years he spent battling the New Jersey justice system, his time spent in prison, and for the loss of his three-year-old son, who he has been restricted from seeing for more than two years.

“I don’t know how I get the two years back,” Aitken told TheDC last month. “All the money, all the time that’s been spent. I lost custody of my son over this. How does he ever get his father back? He doesn’t. You don’t get any of these things back.”

Aitken currently lives in Atlanta, where he works as a libertarian activist and new media strategist for the Foundation for Economic Education, a free-market think tank.

Email Chris Moody and follow him on Twitter