A 65-year-old man has sued the Marin County Sheriff's Office after deputies used a Taser gun on him in his Woodacre home last year.

Peter McFarland, who was 64 when the Taser incident occurred, fell outside his Carson Road home after attending a fundraiser with his wife, Pearl, on June 29, 2009, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Pearl McFarland called authorities just before midnight to request help.

At some point in the wee hours of June 30, McFarland, who had been drinking, made a reference to shooting himself in the head, and paramedics contacted the sheriff's office, according to television news reports.

Deputies then entered the home and fired a Taser at McFarland when he refused

to go to the hospital. He was arrested for resisting arrest around 12:30 a.m., sheriff's Sgt. Debra Barry said.

That charge were dismissed in June 2010, said Ethan Balogh, one of the attorneys who represented McFarland in the criminal case and in the civil lawsuit that was filed this week.

The lawsuit also names two responding deputies, Erin Mittenthal and Justin Zebb, as defendants and alleges that Zebb fired his Taser four times, including once after McFarland was already handcuffed. Mittenthal has worked for the department for six years, Zebb for five.

It claims the deputies had no basis to enter McFarland's house without a warrant, use "excessive force" or arrest him.

"No physical force and no Taser activations were reasonable

or necessary to subdue, detain or arrest Mr. McFarland, even if defendants had a lawful basis to subdue, detain or arrest Mr. McFarland (which they did not)," the lawsuit states.

McFarland's legal team obtained a black-and-white video of the incident - filmed by a camera attached to the Taser - from Marin County prosecutors, Balogh said.

"We want to take you to the hospital for an evaluation," one of the deputies said in the video, which the attorneys gave ABC7 News. "You said if you had a gun you would shoot yourself in the head."

"I'm depressed!" McFarland shouted back.

McFarland then told deputies to leave his home and cursed at them when they ordered him to put his hands behind his back. He got up from the couch, seemingly moving toward the deputies, who used a Taser on him repeatedly as he was on the ground shrieking in pain.

A Taser is a stun gun that delivers electric shocks when fired. The sheriff's office began issuing the weapons in November 2008 and now has about 100 of the stun guns, Barry said.

All uniformed deputies on patrol carry Tasers, she said.

"The sheriff's office takes all allegations of excessive force and/or deputy misconduct seriously and will do so in this case as well," the sheriff's office said in a statement. "After all the facts have been made public, we are confident the actions of our deputies will be found to have been both within the law and department policy."

Barry said Wednesday her office still hadn't received a copy of the lawsuit.

The statement added that the application of force can be "a very difficult thing to watch," particularly when only segments of a lengthy video are viewed.

"It may well be within their policy - they may have the policy of 'Tasing' 64-year-old men inside their home even though they have a heart condition," Balogh countered. "That policy's unlawful."

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Read more West Marin stories at the IJ's West Marin section.

Contact Jessica Bernstein-Wax at jbernstein-wax@marinij.com