A prospective SF State student, who was arrested by university police last July for allegedly making criminal threats against an admissions office employee, has filed a lawsuit against SF State, the California State University, university police and individuals within each entity.

San Francisco resident Reginald Jean-Baptiste, 41, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court on Jan. 25 to recoup legal fees he incurred following his July 29, 2009 arrest and for emotional, physical and psychological injuries he said he sustained from the incident.

"I kind of knew all along that there really was no evidence and no probable cause," Jean-Baptiste said of the arrest. "As soon as I was cleared of all the charges I knew that I would be suing them."

According to court papers Jean-Baptiste filed, the initial dispute - which happened the day before his arrest - resulted from negligence within the CSU system, whereby a miscommunication occurred over his college application.

In the papers, Jean-Baptiste, a Haitian-American, alleged that his arrest and subsequent charges were prompted by discrimination by officers within the University police department. Ellen Griffin, director of university communications for SF State, said in an e-mail that it is the school's policy not to comment on pending litigation.

Jean-Baptiste was arrested at his Daly City bike shop on July 29 on two felony charges of making criminal threats toward a school official, according to a university police report. Attorney Steven Costa, who represented Jean-Baptiste in San Francisco County, said bail was set at $55,000 in San Mateo County and later at $9,000 in San Francisco County.

Jean-Baptiste said the lawsuit, which seeks reparations in excess of $25,000, would account for the costs of two attorneys he hired to represent him in both San Mateo and San Francisco counties, where he faced felony and misdemeanor charges that were later dropped. It would also compensate for wages he lost during the three days he spent in San Mateo County Jail before he could post bail.

An employee in the school's admissions office, who asked not to be identified, said Jean-Baptiste called the office on July 28, 2009 regarding his spring 2010 application. The employee said he declined to give identifying information needed to access his records in the school's computer system. He then grew agitated, according to the admissions employee, and began yelling and cursing over the phone.

Jean-Baptiste, who said he completed prerequisite classes at both City College and the College of Extended Learning before applying to SF State, explained that he submitted an application in early 2009 for the spring 2010 semester through the CSUMentor Web site. When he checked his application status in July, he found that, due to budget cuts, the school was not accepting new students for the spring semester.

Jean-Baptiste said he called the admissions office to see if he might still be either admitted or receive a refund for his $55 application fee. He said he never made threats against the admissions employee, and that the employee threatened to delete his application file.

According to the police report, the admissions employee, fearing for her safety, filed a complaint with university police the following day. Jean-Baptiste was identified by an online search of his phone number, and police were later able to locate his photograph and the address of his business.

"I'm confident that I'm doing the right thing," Jean-Baptiste said of the lawsuit. "I'm confident that they did the absolute wrong thing consistently, insistently and repeatedly."