CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Derrick Washington has sued Cleveland police and the city to get back his gun, a weapon he says officers seized from him illegally in a case in which he was never charged.

Washington, 33, of Cleveland, says officers have held his .38-caliber Taurus since February. He filed a lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court last week seeking to make the city return the gun and pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

Maureen Harper, a spokeswoman for the city, said, "While we won't comment on the specifics of this particular case, the city does evaluate the return of property on a case-by-case basis.''

Guns-rights advocates say the lawsuit is part of a trend that highlights how some police departments are making it increasingly difficult for residents to recover weapons that were seized.

"Of course, it is wrong,'' said James W. Tekavec, a Willoughby attorney and a guns-rights advocate. "This is personal property that belongs to a person who has never been charged. The city of Cleveland is holding it and causing this individual to spend money to pay an attorney to file something in court to get his legal property back.''

Washington's lawsuit alleges that Washington called police about 2:30 a.m. Feb. 10 in the 2800 block of East 116th Street to report a shooting. He spoke with officers and later told them that he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, which was in his car, according to the suit.

He bought the .38-caliber Taurus on Feb. 19, 2011, for about $500 from Atlantic Gun and Tackle, the suit said, and he has a receipt for it.

The lawsuit said police unlawfully searched his car and seized the weapon. He was arrested for possessing a weapon while a felon. He was held in the city jail for three nights.

But he was never charged, and his attorney, J. Gary Seewald, says Washington does not have a criminal record.

Beginning in April, Washington attempted to recover the weapon. The suit said that in one instance, a city official told him to go "file a replevin,'' or a civil case in which a person seeks to have property returned.

The lawsuit says "it is not the policy (of the city) to return handguns legally belonging to citizens of the United States without compelling the citizen to incur the expense of litigation,'' the suit says.

It says the city has refused to turn over the weapon "even though the handgun is not being held under any process of law and is not claimed under title or legal right by any other party or entity.''

The suit says the city has forced Washington to incur attorney fees and court costs over the policy, which it says is a violation of civil rights.

The case is pending before Common Pleas Judge Jose Villanueva.

Gun owners with concealed-carry permits have long railed against the trend of police seizing weapons from innocent residents and forcing people to go to court to get them back.

"This happens all the time,'' said Kevin Jamison, an attorney near Kansas City. "Police know that these cases are often more expensive to take to court than the guns are worth. Most people find out how much it is going to cost to sue, and they give up. It's a really annoying habit. It provides work for me, but it is really offensive.''