A federal lawsuit filed Monday in Jackson accuses Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield and other city officials of harassing and intimidating Lisa and Randy Ashcraft in retaliation for Lisa Ashcraft’s opposition to Winfield’s election and for including the city in the couple’s Warren County Court lawsuit over the demolition of the old Thomas Furniture store on Clay Street.

The civil rights suit claims city officials conspired to deny the Ashcrafts of their rights and harassed and intimidated the couple by “detaining and/or arresting” them without probable cause.

Along with Winfield, city buildings and inspection department director Victor Gray-Lewis, police chief Walter Armstrong, deputy police chief John Dolan, police officers Sgt. Troy Kimble and Leonce Young and five unnamed people are defendants.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and attorneys fees and an injunction to prevent further harassment. No hearing date has been set.

Russell Turner of Jackson, one of the three attorneys representing the Ashcrafts, said the suit involves the officials’ response to Lisa Ashcraft’s activities in the city. He declined to discuss details of the conspiracy claim, but added, “we have credible witnesses making the allegations, and we believe their testimony will support those allegations.”

In addition to the lawsuit over the Thomas Furniture demolition, the suit, which gives one side of the argument, claims Lisa Ashcraft’s support of former Mayor Laurence Leyens’ re-election bid against Winfield, and her opposition to Winfield’s plan to rezone Vicksburg’s downtown district to allow nightclubs contributed to the reported retaliation.

According to the suit, Lisa Ashcraft opposed a proposal by Winfield to rezone Vicksburg’s downtown district to allow nightclubs. It points to her opposition in 2009 to a request for a variance to allow a nightclub on the second floor of the Burger Village restaurant on Washington Street, which the suit claims was owned by a friend of Winfield’s. The special exception was not granted, though Burger Village was granted permission to build an outside staircase and balcony for an upstairs grill. They have not been built.

The Ashcrafts in 2008 bought the former First Federal Savings and Loan building at 1221 Washington St., which shared a common wall with the Thomas Furniture building at 713 Clay St., which collapsed in 2006.

In March 2010, the couple, through their company, American Corporate Investment Group LLC, sued Preston and Mary Reuther, the owners of the furniture store property, and Antique Wood and Brick of Greenwood, the contractor for the demolition, claiming the contractor’s employees damaged the wall.

The city later was included in the suit because the Ashcrafts said the city “inexplicably lifted and/or failed to enforce” a stop work order, allowing the contractor to continue demolition after the wall was damaged. The city filed a motion to be released from the suit, but County Judge Johnny Price denied it this month.

Most of the examples of harassment listed in the suit occurred after the Ashcrafts included the city in the county suit. Three of the incidents occurred this year.

In March, Lisa Ashcraft was charged by Dolan at a traffic stop with violating state law by being a Mississippi resident and having a Florida driver’s license and Florida car tags. The charges were dismissed in city court, according to the suit. Lisa Ashcraft does not live in Vicksburg, according to the suit.

Randy Ashcraft was twice stopped, once in June by Kimble and then in August by Young, for unauthorized operation of an unmarked law enforcement vehicle. The car was a blue Ford Crown Victoria that he was restoring for sale.

Kimble let him go the first time, according to the suit. In August, Young, later joined by Kimble, handcuffed him, took him into custody with his 6-year-old son and wife watching, and placed him in a holding cell at the Vicksburg Police Department. He eventually was charged with having no insurance and released. The charge was later dismissed in city court, according to the suit.

Another claim involves a comment by a Vicksburg police officer responding to a trespass complaint by Lisa Ashcraft on March 24, 2010, that the city’s legal department instructed him to ignore her trespass charges.

The suit also claims that unnamed people keep Lisa Ashcraft under surveillance when she is in town and stays at her apartment in the Washington Street building.

It claims comments by the mayor made to his former chief of staff, Kenya Burks, about charging Lisa Ashcraft for having a Florida car tag and about her support of Leyens as evidence of his intent to retaliate against the Ashcrafts.

On Tuesday, Winfield called the suit frivolous and a waste of taxpayer money.

“Neither I nor anyone in city government have ever done anything to conspire against them,” he said. “It has been obvious since the day I won that those people have acted and conspired with others to undermine not only me, but my administration and to publicly work against me.”

He said the suit will be referred to the city’s insurance carriers, adding that he is considering taking personal legal action against the Ashcrafts for harassment and defamation.

Winfield claimed Burks gave statements to the Ashcrafts’ attorneys for the suit, calling her a disgruntled ex-employee.

Winfield hired Burks as his chief of staff after he was elected in 2009. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen paid her $9,701 in back overtime pay, and then abolished her position a week later. Her annual pay was $72,100.

Gray-Lewis, city attorney Lee Davis Thames Jr. and Armstrong declined to comment on the lawsuit.