"They were kicking me and punching me," Daniel Casares, 28, said of the 2006 incident in his federal court suit. "I was scared for my life." He said he kept yelling, "I'm paralyzed!"

Casares has no use of his legs and right hand while his left arm and hand are "significantly paralyzed," his attorney told the Chicago Sun Times.

Cesares and his brother were in a parked car in an East Side alley when police approached and arrested them on a suspicion of smoking marijuana, court papers say.

The arrest report said Cesares hit one of the officers and used threatening language. A judge found him guilty of resisting arrest and sentenced him to one year of court supervision.