PORTLAND – A Portland man has filed a notice of intent that he plans to file a $4.8 million lawsuit against the city and two police officers he claims beat him while he was handcuffed.

Michael Esposito’s girlfriend, Jessica Blanchard, also has filed a $500,000 notice of claim, saying she was dragged from a car by her hair and threatened.

The legal notices follow the indictments of Officers Patrick DeCourcey and Brian Regan, who are accused of beating Esposito badly enough on Sept. 26 that he had to be hospitalized for 21/2 days. The officers, who were assigned to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency at the time, were indicted Nov. 8.

The notice of claim says Esposito received a broken facial bone, has double vision in his left eye and suffers from nightmares, insomnia and stress. Esposito’s lawyer, Clifford Strike, could not be reached for comment.

DeCourcey’s defense lawyer, Richard Berne, said the lawsuit shows that Esposito’s true goal is money.

“From a criminal lawyer’s standpoint, any complainant who files a civil companion suit to a criminal complaint raises serious doubt about their motivation,” Berne said. “Obviously, there’s a strong economic motive to have someone like Pat convicted, which would be an enormous advantage in a civil suit.”

The case comes in the midst of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into whether a pattern or practice of civil rights violations exists among Portland police officers.

The city has indicated it may refuse to cover any punitive damages awarded in the case because of the severity of the behavior alleged and the fact that other police officers have said they witnessed the alleged misconduct.

The City Council met in executive session Monday to discuss with Gary Wood, the city’s lawyer, how much of the officers’ legal costs the city would cover in the civil case. The officers are responsible for their own criminal defense.

The city appears inclined to pay for the officer’s legal defense in the civil suit, though it may reserve its rights to refuse to pay damages.

“You want people to have … an adequate defense, but clearly we can’t be using a lot of public funds to pay damages when an employee acts in a way that is clearly inappropriate, outside the scope of their employment or just flat-out wrong,” Wood said.

DeCourcey, 30, was indicted for aggravated assault, assault and criminal threatening. Regan, 34, was indicted for assault and tampering with a victim.

Authorities said while Esposito was handcuffed, and cooperating with officers, words were exchanged and Regan punched him. DeCourcey is accused of later punching Esposito five times in the face while he was in the back of a police van.