Minneapolis police officer said he was not the aggressor in downtown assault

An off-duty Minneapolis police officer said he was defending himself when he punched another clubgoer he had argued with earlier, according to a videotaped deposition shown in federal court on Thursday.

The footage in the federal trial of Michael Griffin appeared to contradict earlier testimony by several witnesses who painted the officer as the aggressor in the confrontation outside Envy nightclub. Security camera footage played on Wednesday appeared to show Griffin knocking the other man to the ground.

The 10-year department veteran is standing trial for perjury and deprivation of civil rights in connection with a pair of assaults, 18 months apart, which federal prosecutors allege Griffin used his position as a police officer to commit the assaults, and later mislead investigators and lie in depositions and while on the stand. Griffin has denied these allegations.

Griffin's friend Justin Charpenter, who again took the witness stand on Thursday, testified that the man Griffin punched, Ibrahim Regai, approached him and Griffin "to fight like he'd been trying to do the whole night."

However, prosecutors pointed to inconsistencies in Charpenter's accounts of that night in statements to Internal Affairs investigators, and to FBI agents and in testimony before a federal grand jury.

FBI agent Steven Vitale was called to the stand to read Griffin's report from that night, in which he claimed that Regai was trying to pick a fight with the officer and had gotten into a "combative stance and began taunting" Griffin. Prosecutors pointed out that this appeared to contradict the surveillance footage of the encounter and earlier witness testimony.

Griffin said in his report that Regai was "trying to pump himself up to assault" Charpenter and that he remained defiant even after Griffin pulled out his badge and told him to walk away. He said that Regai ignored repeated warnings that he'd be arrested if he didn't leave. In a videotaped deposition, Griffin said that before the attack, he tried to kick or "sweep" the legs of Regai as Regai charged down the stairs of Envy toward him.

Footage showed a woman striking Griffin from behind with what looked like a high-heeled shoe.

In a taped deposition, Griffin repeatedly denied making up that he kicked Regai first.

"A whole portion is missing from that tape," he insisted. "I don't know why you guys don't believe me; you think I would make that up that I kicked him," he says later. He added that Regai also threw punches in the encounter.

Jurors also heard Thursday from two Minneapolis cops who were patrolling the warehouse district at the time of the incident, one of whom testified that Griffin flagged him and his partner down after the assault, and that after taking Regai to the hospital to be treated for his injuries, they booked him into Hennepin County jail.

Later, the defense protested prosecutors' intention to show jurors a clip of Griffin saying at a deposition that some witnesses "were lying and said they saw the whole thing and that I sucker-punched him."

Griffin was indicted last year on nine criminal counts after a lengthy FBI investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges He remains on home assignment after being relieved of duty.