Florida prosecutors filed felony charges Wednesday against New Orleans Hornets player Darrell Armstrong, who was accused of slapping away the hand of a female police officer as she ordered him off a street outside an Orlando, Fla., nightclub.

Armstrong's defense lawyer, Zachary E. Stoumbos, said Armstrong would vigorously fight the charge of battery on a police officer, which carries a maximum of five years in prison. Armstrong also was formally charged with resisting arrest without violence, a misdemeanor.

"Whatever contact took place was human nature -- to respond to someone grabbing you from behind when you don't know who that is, meaning you push that hand away," Stoumbos said after being informed of the prosecutor's decision to file formal charges Wednesday afternoon. "Only then did he realize this lady officer was an officer."

Armstrong, who signed a free-agent contract with New Orleans in late July after playing nine seasons for Orlando, was arrested on July 7.

Police have alleged that officer Teresa Joyce was ordering Armstrong to get out of the street and that he was ignoring her, so she put her hand on his shoulder to guide him to the sidewalk.

Joyce has said she sprained her left middle and ring fingers, which were tangled up in Armstrong's shirt, as other officers turned Armstrong toward a police car.

Stoumbos said Armstrong, a 35-year-old father of three who well respected in the community, would not have intentionally battered a police officer, which prosecutors will have to prove.