A Saxonburg man has filed a lawsuit alleging he was falsely arrested in a warrantless search by three state troopers from the Butler barracks who broke down the door of his house to arrest him for driving under the influence in 2022.

The suit, filed by Nathan Anthony, claims troopers Michael Lewis, Philip Treadway and Sean Gercken violated his Fourth Amendment right against false arrest and imprisonment, and also alleges assault.

During the early evening of Feb. 19, 2022, county 911 operators received a phone call from a local paramedic reporting a man was “passed out or drinking” in the parking lot of Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market in Saxonburg, according to the suit.

Penn Township police officer Alyssa Matthews spoke to the paramedic, who told her the man he called about drove away from the lot. She saw a Chevrolet pickup truck matching the description of the one in the parking lot in a nearby driveway, pulled in, saw a man entering the home and called out for him to stop, according to the suit.

The man gave no indication that he heard her and entered the home. Matthews was then met there by Gercken and Treadway. Gercken checked the truck’s registration and learned it was registered to Anthony, but at a different address. After a perimeter check of the house found nothing amiss and no one answered the door after police knocked, Gercken contacted Lewis, who gave permission to use force to enter the home without a warrant, according to the suit.

The troopers smashed through the front door using a battering ram and called out for Anthony, who emerged in his undershorts, according to the suit. Anthony was placed in handcuffs and taken to the barracks where he was given a breath test and arrested for DUI, according to the suit.

In the suit, Anthony’s attorney Patrick Casey of Butler argues that warrantless searches and seizures in a person’s home are presumptively unconstitutional and unreasonable under the U.S. and state constitutions.

None of the exigent circumstances that permit a warrantless search of a private home existed, according to the suit.

“It was an outrageous violation of a person’s constitutional right under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and article 1, section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which provides protection to all people to be safe and secure in their property against unreasonable search and seizure,” Casey said Friday.

Common Pleas Court Judge Kelley Streib issued a memorandum of opinion May 23, 2023 granting Casey’s motion to suppress all evidence from the search and seizure, according to the suit.

On July 11, 2023, the court ordered the entry of a nolle prosequi in the case against Anthony, according to the suit. Nolle prosequi is a legal term meaning the prosecutor will not prosecute the case further.

A search in Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial System portal of the docket number of the case that is cited in the suit comes back with “No results found.” The website contains no reference to the case, including a preliminary hearing held before District Judge Sue Haggerty on May 18, 2022 that was also mentioned in the suit.

The civil suit against the troopers was initially filed in the Common Pleas Court in February, but was transferred to federal court on March 19 at the request of the attorney general’s office, which is representing the troopers.

The suit seeks compensation and punitive damages and payment of legal fees and costs in excess of $35,000, and a jury trial.

State police declined to comment on the suit.