Both sides agree that Thomas J. Frazier’s right eye was injured so badly during a drug arrest last year that it had to be surgically removed.

But how the injury happened and whether police are to blame is in dispute. Frazier claims that police abused him after he surrendered and that they hit his eye with a radio. City lawyers contend that Frazier suffered a puncture wound to his eye while struggling with officers behind some bushes where he was hiding.

The case appears to be headed to court.

It was about 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 6 when police conducted a "buy-bust" operation around the 1400 block of Tidewater Drive. An undercover officer bought $10 worth of heroin from Frazier, according to court documents, then left and signaled to an arrest team.

Frazier fled, according to the city attorney’s office.

Frazier said in an interview that once he was found, he tried to surrender peacefully. Officers manhandled him, cuffed him, placed him face down and held him immobile, he contended. That’s when, he charged, a blow from a radio injured his eye.

"I didn’t do nothing but comply with what they told me to do from the moment they saw me in the bushes," he said.

In a written statement provided to The Virginian-Pilot, the city attorney’s office said the eye wound occurred when Frazier struggled with the officers in a space between an apartment building and bushes.

"In conducting the arrest the officers acted properly and used only the force necessary to overcome Frazier’s resistance," the statement says.

Police contended that a branch poked Frazier in the eye. That’s according to a letter from Public Defender S. Clark Daugherty, who represented Frazier in the drug case and who spoke with a prosecutor about the police version.

Frazier’s lawyers, Louis N. Joynes II and Adam H. Lotkin, have filed a notice of claim with the city, a prerequisite for a lawsuit. No suit has been filed.

Frazier, meanwhile is headed to state prison. A judge has sentenced him to serve four years, nine months for heroin distribution in the case.

Thomas J. Frazier is shown in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. He has been sentenced to four years, nine months by a judge for heroin distribution. Meanwhile, Frazier may bring suit against Norfolk for an injury to his right eye during his arrest. Frazier claims he was beaten by police unnecessarily, while city officials say officers weren’t to blame.

MARK MITCHELL THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT