MADISON — A North Anson man has settled a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor that charged a Madison police officer with police brutality.

Greg Shaw has accepted $15,000 to drop the lawsuit, according to his attorney, Walter Hanstein of Farmington.

The settlement is not an admission of guilt, according to the town’s insurance carrier, and the suit was settled only because going to court would have been a nuisance.

Shaw filed the suit in August, charging police brutality and also charging that the arrest and traffic stop that triggered it were both illegal.

According to the suit, Shaw maintained that Keith Bigger, a full-time officer with the Madison Police Department for more than two years, pulled over a car in March 1997 in which Shaw was a passenger. The suit alleges that after Bigger arrested the driver of the car, the officer ordered Shaw out of the car.

Hanstein said that when Shaw asked the officer what was going on, Bigger struck Shaw several times in the head with a flashlight, nearly breaking Shaw’s nose.

“At no time … did plaintiff Shaw in any way use physical force or threaten defendant Bigger,” the suit stated. Hanstein said the driver of the car was a juvenile, and Shaw, concerned about what would happen to the teen-ager, was simply questioning Bigger about the process involved, whether there would be bail and what an arrest would entail.

Hanstein said that after his client was allegedly struck with the flashlight, he attempted to flee, slipped and fell in a snowbank and then allegedly was sprayed with a chemical spray by Officer Bigger. Shaw claimed he had to be treated at a hospital for the injuries the spray caused, according to the lawsuit.

“His eyes needed to be flushed out and he needed treatment for the blow to his face,” Hanstein said. Hanstein said the case was clearly one of an officer who went too far in front of witnesses.

Chief Harley Dunlap also was named in the suit. Dunlap has since retired.

Portland lawyer Michael E. Saucier, who represents Madison’s insurance carrier, Great American Insurance Co., released a statement that indicated that the defendants believed they would prevail had the suit progressed to a trial. According to Saucier, Officer Bigger said Shaw became belligerent during the juvenile’s arrest and pushed the officer, forcing him to spray Shaw with a chemical spray and call for backup help from other officers.

Hanstein said his client, who could not be reached for comment, is satisfied with the award and feels vindicated.