Gugino is also suing Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown; officers Robert McCabe, Aaron Torgalski and John Losi; Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood; and Police Deputy Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, according to the document.
Gugino fractured his skull when he fell after police pushed him to the ground on June 4, during a protest against racism and police brutality, his lawyers said. Among the charges Gugino alleges in his action are the illegal use of force and the violation of his right to freedom of movement.
“There is no reason for the police to stop this, unless they think that some kind of illegal action is about to happen, of course and presenting danger to someone because of something,” said Gugino. “It was not really a curfew. It was an intention to suppress dissent.”
Gugino accuses defendants of violating their constitutional rights, specifically their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, protest, movement, undue seizures, freedom from illegal use of force by government officials and due process, according to their action.
“You have no freedom of speech unless you have freedom of protest,” said one of her lawyers, Melissa Wischerath, in the statement. “If a person’s rights are suppressed by the state, it harms us all by eroding the foundations of our constitution.”
Gugino’s lawyers told CNN that they are requesting a jury trial.
CNN contacted the mayor’s office and the Buffalo Police Department to comment on the case.
The Buffalo Police Benevolent Association declined to comment when contacted by CNN on Monday.
CNN’s Taylor Romine contributed to this report.