Katuria D'Amato, the estranged wife of former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, is accusing Nassau police of violating her civil rights and wrongfully imprisoning her to help her husband in their ongoing divorce battle.

Thomas Liotti, her lawyer, says the 80-year-old former senator worked with police to have her forced into a hospital for three days against her will.

A Tuesday court filing claims Katuria D'Amato was subject to false arrest and imprisonment, assault, battery, privacy invasion, defamation and civil rights violations.

The 52-year-old woman says she had called 911 to report possible intruders at her Lido Beach home in September -- then police held her at South Nassau Communities Hospital. She says they made up a story about her wielding a gun.

"I never touched it," she says. "There never was an issue when they were there that I had touched it. They made it up later."

While Katuria D'Amato was in the hospital, a state Supreme Court judge granted her husband temporary custody of their 8- and 9-year-old children. She's arguing that her husband provided fictitious information, including that she takes lithium to treat bipolar disorder.

Liotti has filed paperwork seeking dismissal of the judge's temporary custody and stay-away orders. 

Stephen Gassman, a lawyer for the former senator, says the allegations are "baseless and bogus."