Actress/singer Pia Zadora's husband has filed a civil suit against his former bosses at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for allegedly terminating his employment illegally following the arrest of his wife last year (13).

The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult star was taken into custody in June, 2013, after a late-night altercation with her adult stepson, who has special needs, ended in a stand-off with cops who surrounded the family's Sin City home and demanded she surrender to them.

She was charged with domestic abuse and coercion for allegedly spraying him with a water hose in a bid to convince him to go to bed, and she was subsequently ordered to undergo impulse control counselling.

Her husband, former deputy sheriff Michael Jeffries, claims he was "off duty, inside his private residence, and legally intoxicated" when the drama unfolded, but alleges he was punished by his superiors even though he was not found to have been involved in any "criminal wrongdoing".

In legal papers filed in Clark County Court in Nevada on 23 October (14), he accuses police officials of placing him on an extended probation period over the stand-off and then violating his civil rights by "unlawfully" firing him in October, 2013 after two years on the job.

He is seeking reinstatement and compensatory, consequential and punitive damages for the dismissal.