A man is suing the City and Council of Denver -- and a DPD officer -- for a July 26 incident near I-UP.(Photo: Rathod Mohamedbhai LLCl)

DENVER - A Denver man has filed a lawsuit against the City and County of Denver -- and Denver Police Officer Choice Johnson -- alleging the officer was violent and the city failed to properly train him.

On July 26, 2014, Brandon Schreiber told 9NEWS his brother, Matthew, had fallen asleep at The 1Up bar on the 1900 block of Blake Street.  Schreiber said a bartender asked his brother to leave.  Moments later, Denver police detained his brother outside of the bar, and sent him to detox.  Schrieber said he approached Officer Johnson to ask a few questions about his brother.

"[Officer Johnson] told me 'If you don't leave, I'm going to put you in jail,' and I said 'Well this is ridiculous. I want to make sure my brother is safe.'  And it was at that point that he took two steps forward and choke-slammed me to the ground," Schreiber said.

Video from a city halo camera caught it all.

"The initial force of that was super painful," Schreiber said. "I just remember his right arm coming down onto my neck, and you know, the bottom half of my face, my chest, and he's just kind of pounding me."

Schreiber was arrested that night. The charges were dropped.  Johnson received a 30-day suspension.  It was overturned.

"It's disheartening to know that the people who should be sticking up for you are not sticking up for you," Schreiber said.

The complaint puts part of the blame in on the city, alleging "Denver failed to properly train, supervise, and discipline its employees, including Officer Johnson, with the respect to the use of excessive force, unlawful seizures, and false arrests, and First Amendment retaliation."

"We hope that there is some policy change, and some training, perhaps in the future, that can prevent something like this from happening to other innocent people like Brandon," his attorney, Arash Jahanian of Rathod Mohamedbhai LLCl, said.

"I don't want to, at any point, to have to put my trust in [Officer Johnson] again, because he's failed me,"  Schreiber said.

The Denver Police Department confirmed Johnson is an active duty officer currently on patrol, but wouldn't comment on the litigation.

9NEWS reached out to the Denver City attorney but did not receive a call back.

(© 2016 KUSA)