COLUMBUS, OH — A Washington, D.C., man filed a lawsuit on Oct. 23 against a member of the Ohio National Guard and several police officers after being detained at a September protest in the nation's capital while playing a well-known villain theme song from the "Star Wars" movies. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of Sam O'Hara, 35, naming Sgt. Devon Beck of the Ohio National Guard and four DC police officers as the defendants. The lawsuit stems from his Sept. 11 arrest, which he says violated his First Amendment rights. The lawsuit claims O'Hara frequently protested the presence of National Guard members sent to Washington, D.C., in August. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Aug. 16 ordered 250 guard members to Washington at the request of the Secretary of the Army. "Mr. O'Hara was deeply concerned about the normalization of troops patrolling D.C. neighborhoods. And so, he began protesting the Guard members' presence by walking several feet behind them when he saw them in the community," the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia states. National Guardsmen deployment: Can National Guardsmen deployed to US cities claim conscientious objection? O'Hara used his phone and sometimes a small speaker to play "The Imperial March," an imposing John Williams composition synonymous with "Star Wars" character Darth Vader, while recording the encounters and posting them on TikTok. "Ohio National Guard member Sgt. Devon Beck was not amused by this satire," the suit says. The lawsuit accuses the Guard member and the local law enforcement officers of suppression of speech, retaliation, unreasonable seizure, excessive force, and false imprisonment. O'Hara is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to his legal fees. On Sept. 11, O'Hara was returning home from work when he saw Beck and several other uniformed guard members patrolling the Logan Circle neighborhood, near downtown Washington, D.C. O'Hara played the march theme on his phone and started recording, the suit says. O'Hara alleges that Beck threatened to call the Metropolitan Police Department if he continued to bother him, the suit says.