Updated 13 hours agoA few Pittsburgh police officers habitually escalate confrontations with citizens, use excessive force on them and then file false criminal charges to justify or cover up their civil rights violations, a South Park man claims in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

The city has known about the practice for years but ignored it, according to the lawsuit.

A video was the only thing that saved Gabriel Despres, 20, from felony charges, he said.

“It was scary thinking I was going to be marked for the rest of my life,” Despres said.

In addition to prison, he was facing the prospect of being turned down for good jobs and otherwise facing the hurdles that confront convicted felons. When a video surfaced showing that he hadn’t attacked former Pittsburgh police Sgt. Stephen Matakovich, he was relieved.

“Who’s going to believe a 19-year-old kid who’s intoxicated over the word of an officer?” Despres said.

Police do a difficult, dangerous job and don’t get the respect they deserve, but supervisors need to hold bad officers accountable, Despres and his lawyer, Tim O’Brien, said.

“How do they not do something?” O’Brien asked.

The lack of action is the reason Pittsburgh and other police departments across the country are losing public confidence, he said.

Matakovich, 47, of Brookline is scheduled to stand trial on federal charges that he deprived Despres of his civil rights during a Nov. 28 arrest outside a high school football game at Heinz Field and falsified a police report to obstruct a federal investigation of the incident.

Despres is suing Matakovich, the city and Landmark Event Staffing Services, which provided security during the football game. City spokeswoman Katie O’Malley, Landmark spokeswoman Hadas Streit and Tina Miller, Matakovich’s lawyer, declined to comment.

Despres, then 19, went to Heinz Field to watch the Aliquippa-Thomas Jefferson football game, the lawsuit said. Because he had been drinking, he gave his truck keys to a friend.

The two became separated, and the friend entered the stadium without Despres. When Despres tried to enter, the Landmark security guards ordered him to leave because he’d been drinking.

When he asked why he couldn’t at least find his friend to get the keys so he could wait out the game in his truck, the security guards told him to stay where he was while they summoned Matakovich, who was working a secondary detail at the stadium, the lawsuit said.

“Plaintiff was intoxicated, but he was not aggressive, belligerent, or violent, nor did he pose a threat of harm to the security personnel or anyone else,” the lawsuit said.

By contrast, Matakovich shouted obscenities and threatened to harm Despres, the lawsuit said. When Matakovich ordered him to leave, Despres started walking away. Matakovich then taunted him and when Despres turned to face him, Matakovich struck him in the chest, knocking him to the ground, and then punched him in the head, face and nose, the lawsuit said.

Matakovich arrested him on several charges, including felony assault on a police officer, the lawsuit said.

To support the charges, Matakovich filed an affidavit claiming Despres had taken a sideways fighting stance, clenched his fists, lunged toward the officer and punched him in the chest, the lawsuit said.

“The affidavit of probable cause prepared by Matakovich was intended to make it appear as if plaintiff was aggressive, violent and had attacked Matakovich, all of which was false,” the lawsuit said.

After a video surfaced showing Despres didn’t attack the officer, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office dropped the assault charge, the lawsuit said.

Despres pleaded guilty to summary charges of trespass and public drunkenness, according to court records.

The police department’s use-of-force expert warned top officials before the incident that Matakovich was striking people in the head, but the city took no action to discipline or retrain him, the lawsuit said.

The city failed to discipline Matakovich for a prior incident in which he assaulted a Landmark security guard and then filed false criminal charges against the guard. The lawsuit cites several other lawsuits that claimed Matakovich and other officers used excessive force and then filed false criminal charges.

O’Brien’s law firm handled most of the cases, some of which were settled. One is pending.

“Matakovich testified at a deposition on Dec. 29, 2015, that it was his regular practice to insist that any criminal defendant whom he had arrested plead guilty to a criminal offense in order to protect himself from civil liability. He testified that he advised his subordinates to do the same.”

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