Christina Dorsey, a 20-year-old African-American woman, filed suit July 1 in federal court against the City of San Diego, the police department, and several police officers.

In the early morning of July 20, 2014, she was sitting in an automobile. According to her suit, a police officer demanded she get out of the car without an explanation. She refused, allegedly because her fear of police mistreatment, particularly of blacks. Ultimately, three male officers pulled her from the car, slammed her face to the ground, and pressed their knees on her back, according to the suit. They also punched her with their fists, she says, and then hog-tied her and punched her again.

The district attorney's office filed suit against her, and she was acquitted by a jury, says the suit.

Now she wants compensatory and punitive damages. The case hinges in part on the definition of "consensual encounter," in which the police do not need probable cause, but a reasonable person is free to decline speaking to the police. Dorsey's suit says the incident was a consensual encounter.

The city attorney's office is reviewing the case but won't comment, according to a spokesman.