WARREN - Stanley Zoldan filed a lawsuit Monday against Lordstown Village - the same community he represents as a council member.
Besides the village, Zoldan named former Mayor Michael Chaffee as a defendant in the action that seeks compensatory and punitive damages for malicious prosecution, abuse of process, defamation of character and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
It's not the first time Zoldan has sued a Lordstown mayor, either.
In this case, Zoldan states that instead of giving him a court summons after he was charged with shutting down the power to twin wind turbines that partly power the village's administration building, village officials opted to have him arrested and taken into custody in handcuffs.
The lawsuit states Zoldan was ''fingerprinted, photographed and his personal information was permanently entered into databases of arrestees."
''Zoldan's picture appeared in numerous newspapers and media outlets, causing him humiliation,'' according to the lawsuit assigned to Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Andrew Logan.
Chaffee declined to comment.
Current Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill, who was not named a defendant in the case, said Monday he had heard rumors of a suit in the works. But he declined any comment on the suit since he hadn't been served and hadn't had a chance to review the allegations with village attorneys.
It was in January that charges of disrupting public service were dismissed against Zoldan after he was arrested in April 2011 for cutting off the power to the turbines because he said he believed their operation was unsafe and they hadn't been properly inspected.
Zoldan, at the time, argued that if someone had been electrocuted, the village would have been responsible. He said he only shut down the fuse box that operated the turbines and only until Ohio Edison inspected the equipment.
In the 1980s, Zoldan, who was not serving on council at the time, sued then-Mayor Carl Underwood, claiming the village and police used the mayor's towing service and cutting his own Zoldan's Towing out of the rotation to tow cars.
That case reached a settlement before going to trial, and Zoldan said Monday that police started using the tow service he operated.