Lincoln County’s sheriff and a deputy are asking a judge to throw out a Newcastle man’s civil filing because, they claim, he didn’t go about it the right way.

The motion to dismiss Raoul Nelson’s notice to the court attacks the filing on a number of legal fronts. Nelson claims he had a heart attack last year after Deputy Mark Bridgham purportedly handcuffed him and tried to fit him into a cruiser’s back seat that was too small for him.

Nelson was charged in an alleged, Aug. 4, 2015 misdemeanor theft of signs on Newcastle’s Route One.

Nelson’s civil filing in Lincoln County Superior Court in January fails to state a claim that the court could award anything for, co-defendants Bridgham and Sheriff Todd Brackett argue in the motion the court received Feb. 18.

“(It) does not make any allegations against Lincoln County or Sheriff Brackett and it fails to articulate a cognizable claim against Deputy (Bridgham),” the defendants’ lawyer, Portland attorney John Wall III, writes.

The motion was the defendants’ sole filing as of Monday. It does not address Nelson’s accusations surrounding the handling of the Newcastle incident. A notice of a claim is not enough to commence a court action, a complaint is, Wall argues. Besides, he maintains, the court doesn’t have jurisdiction until at least 120 days after the defendants have been served notice.

Wall also claims the defendants weren’t properly served notice. A copy of the document was apparently left at the sheriff’s office around Jan. 26, but there was no summons with it, Wall tells the court. A summons should have been served on each defendant, the motion argues.

Reached Monday, Nelson said he didn’t know the defendants had filed the motion; he will file a response to it, he said.

Nelson said he went by what a lawyer told him in filing the notice and serving it, so he believes he followed the right steps, he said. There was no summons because he, not a law enforcement officer, provided the sheriff’s office with the notice, he said.

Nelson has 21 days to respond to the motion, according to court documents.