A high-ranking cop who pepper-sprayed penned-in Occupy Wall Street protesters has been zapped with a lawsuit by two women who were in the line of fire.
Chelsea Elliott and Jeanne Mansfield are suing Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna in Manhattan Federal Court for blasting them in the face with pepper-spray during a protest last Sept. 24 near Union Square.
The incident was caught on video, and 1.5 million people watched it on YouTube, prompting outrage and drawing attention to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Bologna was docked 10 days of vacation for violating NYPD regulations.
In an interview Monday, Mansfield, 24, a Boston writer, said she was suing because she wanted to put the NYPD on notice that what Bologna did was wrong.
“I was attending a peaceful demonstration when I was met with what I feel was an undue amount of force,” she said.
Mansfield said she is sympathetic to police in general but said she didn’t deserve to be pepper-sprayed.
“I think he allowed his emotions to get the best of him,” she said of Bologna.
The lawsuit, filed quietly last Wednesday, accuses Bologna of violating both women’s civil rights.
“Anthony Bologna maced the plaintiffs as they were exercising their constitutionally protected rights, including freedom of speech and freedom of assembly,” the lawsuit says.
Mansfield and Elliot, of Brooklyn, are seeking unspecified damages for physical pain and mental suffering from Bologna and the city.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne declined comment.
