COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A jury ruled in favor of a former agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Friday, nearly four years after he sued the City of Columbus after an encounter with local police. James Burk, an ATF agent who was on assignment in central Ohio, filed the lawsuit in December 2020. The case came a few months after Burk accused Columbus police officers Joseph Fihe and Kevin Winchell of "blatant misconduct" when they approached him, on duty and wearing credentials identifying his federal agency. Burk's attorneys wrote in a complaint document that the ATF agent had gone to a home in Columbus to retrieve an illegally-owned shotgun, but the woman inside refused to open their door and instead called Columbus police. The resident -- who claimed was she home alone with her children -- did notify dispatchers that Burk said he was with the ATF, and Burk's attorneys noted that information was passed on to Fihe and Winchell. "Any reasonable officer arriving at the scene would have simply confirmed Agent Burk's credentials, then offered him assistance or cleared from the scene," attorneys from the firm Cooper Elliot wrote. "Instead, the officers who did arrive immediately drew their weapons on Agent Burk, berated him, manhandled him, repeatedly tased him, cuffed him and locked him in the back of a police cruiser." Attorneys for the City of Columbus would later claim, in a filing for summary judgement, that the Columbus Division of Police had no way to verify Burk's ATF credentials. They added that police hadn't received any heads up in advance from the federal agent that he would be retrieving a firearm in their area. When the pair of Columbus police arrived at the home, Burk turned to them and put his hands up. Both officers responded by pulling out their guns and ordering Burk to get on the ground. Defense attorneys later claimed Burk refused to get on the ground, yelling to the officers that he was a federal agent. The officers eventually moved to restrain Burk, and began tasing him while trying to place him in handcuffs. Even after seeing Burk's ATF credentials while restraining him on the ground, neither officer released him and instead tried to "shove him in the back of a police cruiser," according to the complaint document. Defense attorneys later wrote that Fihe "did not believe plaintiff was an actual federal agent given his behavior and the ease of falsifying badges." Burk was eventually released an hour later with no charges against him. Later on after the encounter, Burk's lawyers said he discovered that Fihe and Winchell were also making light of evidence from the incident. "Defendants shared body camera footage of the incident broadly within the Columbus Police Department and others outside CPD," they wrote. "The footage was shared not for any proper purpose, but rather to ridicule and embarrass Agent Burk." Burk's attorneys sought compensation and punitive damages for their client in an unspecified amount in the original filing. They claimed that Burk suffered lasting physical and mental injuries from the incident, and was so injured from the encounter that he was "unable to continue doing his job in an investigative and effective capacity." He was ultimately moved from field work to a "purely administrative and support position." The Columbus City Attorney's Office served as legal counsel for the defendants, denying all but the basic facts of the case, or claiming a lack of knowledge in response to the complaint. Burk's attorneys stopped pursuing the City of Columbus as a defendant after a judge ruled on the motion for summary judgment. But the case against the pair of officers did ultimately go before a jury trial starting Tuesday. The jurors returned a verdict in favor of Burk, noting among other damages that the officers directly caused the federal agent's post-traumatic stress disorder. Burks and his wife, who also claimed damages as a plaintiff, ultimately earned $1.6 million from the case. “Today’s verdict sends a clear message: Our community will hold officers accountable when they abuse their power and violate people’s rights," attorneys from Cooper Elliot told NBC4. "We are grateful the jury recognized the tremendous harm this incident caused Jim and his wife, Summer.” Fihe and Winchell remain employed with CPD as of Friday, according to records from the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Both officers have worked for the division since 2001. Read the original complaint document, filed in 2020, below: James-Burk-ComplaintDownload