New York City officials have taken the unusual step of refusing to defend a police inspector. He’s being sued for blasting protesters with pepper spray during last fall’s Occupy Wall Street protests.

Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna earned notoriety after Internet videos showed him spraying a group of young women detained behind police netting.

The NYPD later docked Bologna 10 vacation days.

In court papers filed in May, the city’s legal department refused to indemnify the inspector against a civil suit filed by the women. That move could make him personally liable for any damages.

His defense is now being paid for by his union, the Captains Endowment Association.

Bologna’s lawyer, Louis La Pietra, tells The Wall Street Journal he didn’t mean to spray the women and had acted appropriately.