Man Jolted by Officer Files $2-Million Claim : Ventura: An epileptic charges that the shocks from a stun gun led to nightmares and anxiety. He plans to proceed with a civil rights suit.

An epileptic man filed a $2-million damage claim on Thursday against the city of Ventura and a Ventura police officer who repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun as he was recovering from a seizure.

The claim by Donn Christensen Jr., 26, of Ventura is a step required by law before Christensen can proceed with a civil rights lawsuit that he plans to file in federal court, his lawyer said.

Christensen accused Officer Steven Mosconi in the damage claim of assault, false arrest and civil rights violations for using a 50,000-volt stun gun to force him out of his pickup truck and submit to handcuffing after Christensen caused a traffic accident during the seizure.

The shocks have caused Christensen to suffer from nightmares, sleeplessness and anxiety, and may cause him post-traumatic stress disorder in the future, the claim said.

Christensen said Thursday that he vomited in a patrol car after Mosconi arrested him and lost all feeling in his fingers for three days after he was handcuffed.

“I never believed in any of this stuff till it happened to me--the stress and stuff that people go through from this,” Christensen said. “It’s hard to imagine.”

The district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that it would not file criminal charges against Mosconi. But Police Chief Richard F. Thomas said Mosconi violated department policy and will be disciplined.

Thomas and Mosconi could not be reached Thursday for comment. Ventura City Manager John Baker said the city will not comment on the claim.

But Baker added: “We’ll handle it the same way we always handle a claim: They’re reviewed by the city clerk and the city attorney and a decision is made on acceptance or rejection.”

Baker said he does not know whether the city has ever paid a damage claim as large as $2 million. Christensen’s attorney, Sanford Gage, said state law required him to file the claim before he can file a civil lawsuit against Mosconi and the city, which he plans to do in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Christensen, a former Ventura County disc jockey, has been undergoing neurological and physical tests to determine if being shocked at least nine times by Mosconi caused him permanent nerve damage, Gage said.

Christensen said he had to leave his job as a weekend disc jockey at KKUR-FM in Ventura after the incident because he was too nervous to concentrate on work.

“A normal person might simply be stunned and might recover quickly, but epilepsy is the kind of condition that affects the electrical impulses set off in the brain,” Gage said. “There’s a little concern as to how that might affect him. The experience was very traumatic.”

Christensen said Thursday that nightmares now awaken him several nights a week.

“I have nightmares basically of being assaulted, and oftentimes it’s by a police officer. It’s not even identifiable as a Ventura police officer; I guess you’d call it generic police officers,” Christensen said.

Each time, the nightmare officer attacks him with an object, Christensen said. “It’s usually like a baton or a flashlight. It’s interesting it’s not a stun gun. I usually wake up sweating and shaking,” he said.

The case began June 23 just after 6 p.m., when Christensen suffered a seizure at the wheel of his 1984 Ford Ranger pickup truck, which then swerved in front of oncoming traffic on Thompson Boulevard and caused two cars to collide.

At 6:12 p.m., Mosconi arrived on the scene. According to his own incident report, Mosconi immediately was told that Christensen had suffered an epileptic fit, and that he had an anti-seizure medicine called Tegretol in the truck.

Mosconi’s report said he was concerned that Christensen, whose “eyes were red and glassy,” would drive away and cause another accident.

Mosconi demanded the keys from Christensen, who made a fist around the keys, “just glared at me and said no,” his report said.

After trying unsuccessfully to pull Christensen from the truck, Mosconi drew his Nova Spirit stun gun. He then demanded the keys and used the stun gun each time Christensen refused to surrender them--shocking him six to eight times, the report said.

Christensen finally got out of the truck, and, according to the district attorney’s office and witnesses, Mosconi shocked him at least two more times as he stood passively.

However, Mosconi’s report does not mention any use of the stun gun after Christensen got out of the truck.

The claim also alleges that while Christensen was in the hospital having blood drawn for drug and alcohol tests, Mosconi’s partner told him that he was “very lucky” Mosconi wasn’t more forceful with him--and that police could file charges against him at any time within the coming year.