SEABROOK – The son of a former town selectman is seeking compensatory and punitive “money damages” in a federal civil suit against a local police officer alleging unwarranted, excessive force and injury to person and reputation.
In the suit filed this month in U.S. District Court, Paul Knowles, son of the late Asa Knowles, claims Seabrook police officer David Hersey violated his Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights during an incident that took place almost three years ago.
The town’s attorney recently filed Hersey’s response to Knowles’ allegations, denying them all.
What the lawsuit alleges
According to the suit filed by Knowles’ attorney, Richard N. Foley of Portsmouth, the incident took place the night of May 24, 2018, when Hersey responded to the home of Knowles’ brother on Biggs Lane in Seabrook while Knowles was “mediating an argument between two of his brothers.” During that time, according to Knowles’ suit, without provocation Hersey, dress