It was well past midnight when Mark and Cheryl Hunsberger were jolted awake by the screams of their 10-year-old daughter.

Rushing to her bedroom in their Botetourt County house, the Hunsbergers found an intruder wearing a uniform and shining a flashlight on their daughter's bed while a second man attempted to pull the covers off the terrified child.

When Cheryl Hunsberger later said something about calling the police, according to a lawsuit the couple would later file, one of the men responded in a chilling tone: "I am the police."

The man was Deputy J.A. Wood of the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office. A $10 million lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke accuses Wood and the second man, whose identity remains unknown to the Hunsbergers, of entering their home the night of Feb. 1 with neither a search warrant nor a good reason.

"They're fortunate that someone didn't have a gun," said Terry Grimes, a Roanoke lawyer who filed the lawsuit. "Because that's the kind of thing where people get shot."

The Hunsbergers have been told the sheriff's office is conducting an internal investigation of the incident, Grimes said. But they are still waiting to hear the results -- or an explanation of any kind -- after being promised a response within two weeks.

Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle declined to comment in detail Friday, saying he had not received a copy of the lawsuit.

"We had reason to be there that night," he said. "There are two sides to any story, and you're just getting theirs right now."

Sprinkle declined to say why police entered the home. "You're durned if you do and durned if you don't in this business," he said. "But I certainly can say we don't have anyone in this department who would intentionally do harm to anyone else."

Wood remains employed as a deputy while an investigation continues, Sprinkle said.

"I don't believe Deputy Wood did anything wrong," the sheriff added.

On the advice of their attorney, the Hunsbergers declined to talk about the case. Grimes also declined to identify their daughter, who is not named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit accuses Wood and his companion, identified only as John Doe, of trespassing and violating the Hunsbergers' constitutional rights against unreasonable searches. It provides the following account of what happened the night of Feb. 1:

After spending a quiet evening watching a college basketball game on television, the Hunsbergers headed upstairs to bed. The second floor of their home near Cloverdale has bedrooms for each of their three children.

Cheryl Hunsberger checked on her daughter just before turning in.

About 1:15 a.m., she awoke to the sound of screaming.

She and her husband ran to the girl's room, which was illuminated by the soft glow of Christmas tree lights strung from an artificial palm tree. There, they saw Woods in a sheriff deputy's uniform standing in the doorway. The deputy was holding a flashlight while the second man tried to pull the covers off the 10-year-old.

After spending some time comforting the terrified child, Hunsberger went downstairs to find the two men in her kitchen. By then, it had sunk in that one of them was a sheriff's deputy. Wood said he had knocked on the door for half an hour before letting himself in.

Grimes said the Hunsbergers are not sure if the door was locked that night. But they both say they did not hear any knocking.

After the two men left, Hunsberger called 911. But her complaint of a breaking and entering into her home has not produced charges. Citing both "information and belief," the lawsuit suggests that no action has been taken because the sheriff's deputy who responded to the 911 call may be related to the unidentified man who accompanied Wood.

The lawsuit also states that several other deputies apparently waited outside the Hunsberger home while Wood and the second man made their way inside.

One possible explanation for the incident is that the man who accompanied Wood was the stepfather of a teenage girl that they were both trying to find, Grimes said. But the attorney has no definitive facts to support that theory and no explanation of why the search would have led to the Hunsberger home.

Having received few answers to the many questions they have about what happened that night, the Hunsbergers decided to file suit. Meanwhile, they are still waiting to hear from the sheriff's office about the internal investigation.

"This investigation is not rocket science," Grimes said. "The sheriff just needs to ask Deputy Wood what he was doing in the Hunsbergers' house in the middle of the night."