A Philadelphia man claiming he was beaten by city police and subjected to a racial slur during an interrogation has lost his civil rights suit against the department.

Jermaine Hill's lawsuit, alleging the Philadelphia Police Department violated his Fourth Amendment rights, didn't point to a specific departmental policy that allowed the police to allegedly beat him, U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled.

A municipality or police department can be held liable only if its policies or customs are considered constitutionally violative, according to the decision.

"Plaintiff makes the conclusory allegation that the city of Philadelphia maintained a custom or policy of failing to train and supervise its officers, but provides no factual information in support thereof," Jones said in his opinion. "Plaintiff fails to allege any facts that provide support for the claim that a municipal custom or policy exists, much less that an official custom or policy caused the harm alleged here. Plaintiff's claim fails to sufficiently plead the existence of a specific policy or custom that precipitated the alleged constitutional violations."

Hill's lawyer, Reginald C. Allen, declined to comment on Jones' ruling.

Michael R. Miller of the city's Law Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Hill alleged in his complaint that after arriving for interrogation by the police in connection with a homicide investigation, he endured two-and-a-half hours of questioning by three officers, during which he was choked, slammed on a table, and called a racial slur.

Specifically, Hill alleged a police lieutenant grabbed him by the throat and choked him, before slamming him onto the table. Then, other officers went through his pockets, he claimed. Hill alleged that when he informed the officers he couldn't breathe, the lieutenant said he did not care if Hill talked because it would be "one less n----r to worry about." He was detained for an additional five to six hours afterward, the suit alleged.

In his lawsuit, Hill claimed that the city was deliberately indifferent to "'police practice, patterns, policies and customs' of false arrest and imprisonment and excessive force, and have ignored 'the need for more or different training, supervision investigation or discipline,'" according to Jones' description of Hill's claims.

Hill also claimed that the city failed to "properly sanction and discipline its police force, which encouraged officers to violate citizens' civil rights."