BANGOR – A Milo woman has filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing a local police officer of using excessive force when he arrested her along with her husband two years ago.

Donna Bubar, 33, last week filed a lawsuit against the town, the police department and Officer Jonathan West. She filed pro se, meaning she does not have an attorney. She is seeking a jury trial, compensatory and punitive damages and attorney’s fees, provided she hires a lawyer.

In a brief telephone interview Tuesday, Bubar said that she filed the suit because “what he did was wrong,” referring to West. She hung up on a reporter Tuesday after refusing to answer a question on whether she had input from an attorney in preparing the document.

“The officer hit the plaintiff on the side of the face while she was crying and upset,” states the complaint. “He then sprayed the plaintiff with pepper spray and the plaintiff fell against the vehicle, striking her back on the passenger side door, [then] the claimant landed on the ground. The officer then dragged the plaintiff across the ground approximately 30 to 50 feet.”

Milo Police Chief Todd Lyford said Wednesday that Bubar jumped on West’s back when he attempted to arrested her husband, Wendell Bubar, on an outstanding warrant issued from 13th District Court in Dover-Foxcroft. He was wanted for violating conditions of bail by having contact with his wife after he was arrested the previous year after a domestic dispute between the couple.

West stopped the car Bubar was driving, and in which her husband was a passenger, at about 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 11, 2002, according to Lyford. After West placed Wendell Bubar under arrest and put handcuffs on him, his wife allegedly jumped on the officer’s back. The officer stated in his report that he “had to strike Donna to get her off me.”

After threatening to use his pepper spray if the couple continued to resist arrest, West sprayed Wendell Bubar, then his wife. The officer stated in his report that he had to force the man into the back of the cruiser.

Bubar, who complained that she had been injured in the scuffle, was taken to Mayo General Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft, where she was treated and released, then arrested, according to the report.

Town Manager Jane Jones said Tuesday that the town had received a copy of the complaint and the matter had been referred to attorneys.

Both Bubars were sentenced to jail time as a result the Jan. 11, 2002, incident.

Donna Bubar pleaded guilty on Feb. 18, 2003, to criminal operating under the influence of intoxicants, and was sentenced to 48 hours in jail, a $500 fine and a 90-day loss of license. She pleaded no contest to a charge of obstructing government administration, was found guilty by the court and sentenced to five days on jail to be served concurrently with the 48-hour sentence. A class D assault charge was dismissed.

Three months later, Wendell Bubar was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to charges of refusing to submit to arrest and criminal mischief.

He also was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and criminal threatening, both class C crimes, over an incident on Nov. 17, 2001. The sentences were to run concurrently.