LaGRANGE says he was awakened about 12:30 a.m. that day in 1999 by a knock at his door.

"There was a knock, and it woke me out of bed, and since there was a couple of drug dealers locally, I didn't feel too safe," he said. "I have a licensed pistol that I have had for 50 years, and I picked it up off my work bench and went to the door."

With his wife, Thelma, 77, nearby, LaGrange said he approached the door, armed with a .38-caliber Colt that he said is an antique but fires fine. LaGrange said he inserted a gun clip containing bullets and opened the door.

Police records state Ryan went to the apartment after receiving a complaint that LaGrange was harassing a neighbor for making too much noise.

"I open the door, and there is a police officer with a gun sticking in my face. And he sees I got a gun, and he asked me to put it down, and I put in on the stand alongside my door," said LaGrange, a father of four. "I figured he was going to tell me I got an emergency in the family or there had been an accident."

Instead, LaGrange says, Ryan "grabbed me and slammed me down on the concrete patio. He jumped on top of me. ... I think he hit me a couple of times in the kidney. I am not sure, but it sure felt like it. He had his knee in the middle of my back and he handcuffed me."

In court records, Ryan concurs that LaGrange put the gun down when asked, but the officer states LaGrange defied an order to get down on the ground. That, Ryan says, is why he knocked the 120-pound senior citizen to the ground and handcuffed him.

Privately, though, police say Ryan, who has won service awards, demonstrated considerable restraint - not firing his gun, for instance - considering he was met at the door by an armed man.