The borough of North Braddock and its insurance carrier have agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a suit brought by a man who says police shocked him with a Taser as he slept on his couch.

Officers Gerard Kraly and Lukas Laeuricia were responding to a silent burglar alarm at the Stokes Avenue apartment of Shawn Hicks in the early morning of July 28, 2007, when the incident occurred.

In his suit, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court and later transferred to federal court, Mr. Hicks said he was asleep on the couch after a night out with friends.

At 2:44 a.m., he said, he was "awakened by being Tasered by Kraly and Laeuricia."

He said he tried to explain that he lived there and showed his identification, but they shocked him two more times, according to the suit.

The officers' lawyer, Paul Krepps, argued that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity because their conduct was in the exercise of good faith.

The officers said they were responding to an alarm, thought they were dealing with a burglary in progress and acted lawfully.

Police said they didn't know whether Mr. Hicks had a weapon and shocked him when he refused repeated commands to show his hands.

The FBI, which investigates civil rights complaints, and the Allegheny County district attorney's office looked into the case and decided against taking action against the police.

Mr. Krepps said the borough and its insurance company settled to save money.

"It was a business decision," he said.

Had the case gone to trial, he said, it might have ended up costing the borough even more, regardless of the eventual outcome.

Mr. Hicks, 30, who has a long criminal record, didn't return a message yesterday.

But his lawyer, Andrew Leger Jr., said he and his client are pleased with the settlement.

In court papers, they said the officers' actions were "outrageous, egregious, willful, malicious and were committed so carelessly as to indicate wanton disregard" for Mr. Hicks' civil rights.

But the police department said the officers didn't know if Mr. Hicks lived in the apartment or not.

When they first showed up, they found the door open and Mr. Hicks lying on the couch, but he wasn't asleep and wouldn't show his hands, they said.

After they zapped him once, he began swearing at them but continued to be uncooperative, they said, so they shocked him again.

In the suit, Mr. Hicks said the officers shocked him a total of three times, even after they had secured his identification from his wallet and determined that he lived at the address.

He also said that his daughter, niece and mother all came home just after the incident and that his mother also told police that he lived at the address.

Even so, he said, the officers took him to their holding cell, where he sat for a few hours complaining of his injuries before they let him go.

He said he then went to the hospital for treatment of injuries he claimed he received from the Taser, which he said included bruises, muscle spasms and neck strain.

He said he also suffered "severe emotional distress."