A federal judge has refused to throw out a civil rights lawsuit in the case of an unarmed mentally ill man who died during a confrontation with Mason police..

In a ruling Friday, federal Judge S. Arthur Spiegel turned down the city of Mason’s request to dismiss the case and set the trial for June 18. The lawsuit claims two police officers used excessive force on Douglas Boucher. Boucher’s family is seeking compensatory and punitive damages from the city of Mason and officers Daniel Fry and Sean McCormick.

Spiegel said a reasonable juror could conclude that the officers used “gratuitous violence.”

Boucher, 39, was allegedly harassing a female clerk at the Speedway gas station on Reading Road in December 2009 when Fry and McCormick happened to stop by the store. The two officers approached Boucher and asked him to go outside. The officers were attempting to handcuff Boucher when he wrestled away and hit Fry in the head with his one handcuffed hand, according to records.

When Boucher approached the clerk again — she had come outside — McCormick attempted to use a Taser on him. The first shot failed, but the second one employed the shock, according to reports at the time of the incident.

Boucher fell to the ground, knocking his head on the concrete. The autopsy revealed a skull fracture as the cause of death. However, court records include an opinion by Dr. Cyril Wecht that indicate the Taser shocks caused a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. The City of Mason’s attorney, Gary Becker, had also filed a motion to exclude the doctor’s testimony, but Spiegel denied the motion.

The lawsuit claims the officers tased Boucher a total of six times in less than a minute and hit him and kicked him after he was on the ground. Becker said in his motion that Boucher was acting aggressively prior to his falling face first on the pavement. When he refused to show the officers his hands, they suspected he might try to ambush them as he had previously when he allegedly struck Fry.