Local news photographer John Weston Osburn, who has worked primarily for Indybay Media, has filed a federal suit in Alameda County against the City of Oakland and several Oakland police officers claiming unreasonable seizure and constitutional violations relating to his arrest during the Johannes Mehserle verdict protest on July 8, 2010. You'll recall that 78 protesters were arrested that night in all, after what was a peaceful protest devolved by evening into a lot of opportunistic vandalism and looting by black-clad anarchist types. Osburn says he was "maliciously and sadistically" handcuffed and detained and denied due process, and he's seeking punitive damages.

The City of Oakland won't comment because they claim as of today they have not yet been served with the federal lawsuit, which kind of makes us wonder — this Courthouse News site first published news of the suit a week ago, so where is it?

Osburn's suit follows on a number of well publicized arrests of reporters during Occupy kerfuffles in Oakland. The Oakland Police Department is still funding an independent investigation of the department's actions during last fall's Occupy events, but as of the spring they still considered themselves the victims in the whole thing, despite being the ones carrying the arms and tear gas and such.

[Courthouse News via SF Weekly]