A Summit Township resident is suing two state troopers claiming he was falsely arrested in 2020 when he was 17 years old and subjected to excessive force resulting in a shoulder injury that changed his career plans and will require surgery.

Jacob Campbell, who is now 19, filed the civil lawsuit against Troopers Michael Lewis and Timothy Morando of the Butler barracks alleging false arrest and excessive force and intentional infliction of emotional distress against both troopers, and battery against Lewis. Morando is currently assigned to the Washington County barracks in Eighty Four. Lewis is assigned to the Butler barracks.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial.

The troopers responded to Campbell’s home on May 22, 2020, following a 911 call about an argument between Campbell’s father and a neighbor. Campbell and a younger sibling watched from the porch as their father was handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle. They then walked into the house and were followed by some troopers, who were not given consent to enter, according to the suit.

After Campbell asked Morando several questions about his father being taken into custody, he said he wanted to go to his room.

Morando asked him what was in his room. Campbell said there was a bed, desk, PlayStation and a dresser in the room, and took a couple of steps toward the room.

Campbell said he heard Morando say something to the other troopers, and then Lewis tackled him to the floor and put his knee on his back, according to the suit. He said his left shoulder impacted the floor when he was tackled.

He said Lewis yanked his arms backward, placed him in handcuffs, picked him up by his arms, walked him through the house and pushed him into a screen door to open it, breaking the door, according to the suit.

Campbell said he asked if he was under arrest, and Lewis said he wasn’t. He said he asked for the handcuffs to be removed, and Lewis said “you are under arrest for being an (expletive),” according to the suit.

After about five minutes in the back of the police vehicle, Campbell said his shoulder began to bother him, and he began to wiggle to get comfortable. Someone outside the vehicle yelled at him and asked what he was trying to do and what was in his pockets. He said he then was yanked from the vehicle, thrown against the side of the vehicle and searched, according to the suit.

After he eventually was released from the vehicle and his handcuffs were removed, he said he immediately took some ibuprofen for his sore back and shoulder.

State police denied Campbell’s allegations in a response to the suit filed by the state Attorney General’s office, which is representing the troopers. State police declined to comment on the case.

According to the suit, which was filed in May, Campbell said he continued feeling pain in his shoulder and back over the summer and spent most of a family beach vacation in July laying down inside a condominium they rented.

When they returned home, Campbell said he wanted to see a chiropractor, but the earliest available appointment was in October due to limited scheduling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He had three sessions with the chiropractor every week through mid-January 2021. Campbell said he stopped the appointments because he felt there was improvement and because of the cost, the suit stated.

After the pain got worse a few months later, he said he called an orthopedic surgeon in March and got an appointment in June. He said he had about 29 physical therapy sessions from June 30 that year through March 2022.

The injury left him unable to lift weights or play pickup games of basketball and football. Campbell said it hurts when he lifts his left arm above his head and picking up books causes pain, according to the suit.

Coming from a family of electricians, Campbell said he planned to become an electrician and a heating, ventilation and air conditioning technician. He began vocational-technical training in 11th grade and planned to be licensed when he graduated high school.

Being unable to meet the physical demands of that work due to his shoulder pain and limited range of movement, Campbell said he enrolled in Butler County Community College and took “prerequisite” classes he didn’t take in high school because he never planned to go to college, according to the complaint.

On Monday, his mother, Angela Campbell, said he is scheduled to have surgery on his shoulder Aug. 30.

“Surgery was our last option. We tried for two years to go through physical therapy, cortisone shots and the chiropractor also. It just kept degenerating over time,” she said.

She said her son was frustrated with the responding troopers and was flippant toward them, but the troopers had no reason to physically engage him.

“Jake was just asking questions. He was kind of being a smart-ass to the police officers, and they were kind of getting annoyed with him. He got frustrated. He went to his room and they tackled him. They should have never put their hands on my son,” she said. “I was in shock: Are they really doing this to my 17-year-old?”

She said her son didn’t take classes needed for college, take an SAT test or visit colleges because he planned to become a union electrician. He is adapting well to college, and has a 3.9 grade point average, she said.

However, what her husband, Joshua Campbell, went through with the state police was worse than what their son experienced, she said.

Police charged Joshua Campbell, who was 44 at the time of the incident, with two felony counts of aggravated assault and two misdemeanor counts each of terroristic threats and simple assault.

Police said he pointed an AR-15 rifle in their direction during their response to the incident involving his neighbor. According to a Butler Eagle article, troopers conceded during the June 2020 preliminary hearing that a gun was not pointed at them.

District Judge Lewis Stoughton held the charges for court, but no references or documents to the case are available through the state’s online judicial record portal.

The charges were dropped and his record has been expunged, Angela Campbell said.

“I lost friends over it. They thought we were a menace in Butler,” she said.

This story was updated Aug. 2, 2022, to remove an incorrect statement. A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed an obscenity to the defendant.