A Black girl who was physique slammed whereas being arrested by a police officer responding to a name a few household argument is suing the town of Akron, two cops and its chief of police, alleging extreme use of pressure and malicious prosecution.
In January of 2024, Dierra Fields, now 26, was amongst a number of relations engaged in a chaotic, heated argument that concerned some pushing and shoving when Akron police arrived and broke up the combat, separating the relations on reverse sides of their lounge.
A lot of the adults finally calmed down, however a 15-year-old woman stood on a sofa and continued screaming at Fields and the officers, in response to police experiences and bodycam video. Fields requested the officers to let her go exterior, the place her two youngsters have been within the automobile, in an effort to deescalate the state of affairs, the lawsuit says. The officers refused her request.
Fields was standing nonetheless when Officer Shoemaker started to place her in handcuffs. When she requested why she was being arrested, he stated he was solely “detaining” her. As she continued to query the officer, Shoemaker, “with out provocation … grabbed Plaintiff, lifted her into the air, and physique slammed her headfirst to the bottom,” the grievance says.
He then took Fields exterior and put her into his police automobile. Fields was given a quotation for resisting arrest and a summons to look in court docket.
After the bodycam video of the incident surfaced in reporting by Sign Akron, police confronted public outcry over the violent use of pressure, and Anthony Finnell, a brand new impartial police auditor employed by Akron’s Residents’ Police Oversight Board started investigating.
In his report launched in April of 2024, Finnell disagreed with an Akron PD inner affairs assessment of the incident that had discovered Shoemaker’s use of pressure “objectively affordable.”
Akron Police Sgt. Jason Belacic had concluded that “Officer Shoemaker’s actions weren’t solely justified however reserved as effectively. It might have been very simple for somebody in the identical state of affairs to lose their endurance and react in a method that may mirror poorly on the Akron Police Division.”
Finnell stated that’s certainly what occurred.
“Officer Shoemaker misplaced his endurance with the state of affairs and used pressure that was not justified towards Dierra,” he wrote, calling for Police Chief Brian Harding to conduct an inner affairs investigation into Shoemaker for the “abrupt and aggressive” use of pressure, for not following home violence procedures, and for violating de-escalation insurance policies, amongst different coverage violations.
Finnell additionally instructed the oversight board that Officer Timothy Shmigal, who was Shoemaker’s supervisor and noticed his takedown of Fields, must be investigated for failing to intercede in Shoemaker’s use of pressure, for violating de-escalation insurance policies, and for failing to correctly doc and report the usage of pressure.
Finnell additional discovered that Shoemaker had no possible trigger to cost Fields with any crimes, and no affordable suspicion to detain her.
Chief Harding and Akron Mayor Shammas Malik later rejected the impartial police auditor’s findings, writing in a joint assertion that Shoemaker had acted moderately given the circumstances.
Referencing Shoemaker’s use-of-force assertion that stated Fields had pulled her proper hand away and turned towards him whereas he was cuffing her, making him involved she may assault him and attempt to flee, Harding wrote that “Handcuffing is a harmful time for an officer, particularly when you may have one handcuff on and are attempting to position the second cuff,” which “could also be used as a weapon.”
In the meantime, within the run-up to her prison trial, Fields pleaded not responsible to the resisting arrest cost, in addition to to obstruction of official enterprise, which was added months after her arrest.
The lawsuit says Akron prosecutors provided her numerous “unethical” plea agreements to “forestall her from looking for accountability for the hurt she suffered,” together with pleading responsible in change for sealing her file, and signing an settlement to waive her proper to file a civil lawsuit.
Fields steadfastly maintained her innocence, and was unanimously acquitted of all prices in a jury trial held on June 13, 2024.
“I take pleasure in who I’m as an individual,” Fields instructed Sign Akron shortly after she rejected the plea deal. “In fact, when one thing isn’t true, you don’t need that to be placed on you in any method. I take my profession, education the whole lot like that very severely. I’ve two youngsters. It’s not simply me that this impacts.”
The arrest precipitated Fields to lose her job driving for DoorDash in addition to her place on an inventory for sponsored housing, her legal professional Imokhai Okolo instructed Atlanta Black Star. She suffered decrease again and rib accidents on account of the slam to the ground by Shoemaker, he stated, including that the incident additionally “took an emotional toll on her.”
“To be a Black girl at the moment, be physique slammed and handled like this by a police officer, how are you purported to, you recognize, ever take a look at policing the identical? How are you purported to not be afraid on your youngsters and their interactions with the police division?” Okolo continued.
Her lawsuit filed in U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Ohio in January towards the Metropolis of Akron, Shoemaker, Shmigal and Harding alleges federal violations involving extreme pressure, malicious prosecution, supervisor legal responsibility, municipal legal responsibility, and negligence, in addition to a state legislation declare towards Shoemaker for assault and battery.
The town has did not conduct impartial and unbiased investigations into alleged misconduct of their officers, the grievance argues, noting that Shoemaker has been the topic of a federal lawsuit involving related conduct.
Shoemaker was beforehand named in a lawsuit towards the town by individuals alleging unconstitutional arrests throughout a protest towards the police killing of Jayland Walker by Akron police in 2022. Shoemaker was recorded in a video repeatedly punching a restrained man within the face, in response to Sign Akron, leading to a lawsuit settled within the plaintiff’s favor for $747,000 final yr.
Fields’ lawsuit cites a number of different instances involving extreme use of pressure by Akron police which “disproportionately contain African People,” and contends that the town has chronically failed to research or impose any self-discipline on its cops for his or her “unlawful conduct and false reporting (immediately or by omission of pertinent info and/or information).”
The Metropolis of Akron has for years “acquiesced to a tradition of violence” in its police division, the place officers depend on a “police code of silence” with the intention to defend themselves or fellow officers from inner self-discipline, civil legal responsibility or prison prices in instances the place they and their fellow officers have engaged in misconduct, the lawsuit says. And the “de facto insurance policies and practices” of the police division serve to “institutionalize police mendacity and immunize cops from self-discipline,” it argues.
“She did nothing incorrect,” stated Okolo of his shopper. “You realize, the entire function was punitive. The officers realized they did one thing incorrect, and with the intention to cowl themselves, they determined to connect prices on her that if convicted, she wouldn’t be capable of come again and get accountability of a civil nature. That’s what cities strive, oftentimes, to keep away from legal responsibility. … ‘Let’s defend our police and permit them to basically exit right here and proceed to do that egregious conduct and bodily assault individuals.’”
Moreover representing a number of purchasers in civil fits involving cops towards the Metropolis of Akron, Okolo can be a neighborhood organizer and says he’s working with The Freedom Bloc, an area empowerment group for Black residents, to acquire use of pressure knowledge from the Akron PD, whose legislation division has “fought again on public information requests.”
“There are repeat offenders that are typically in the direction of the highest of this [use of force] record yr after yr, and there’s simply been no accountability,” stated Okolo. Referring to Shoemaker, he stated, “This officer remains to be out on the streets, doing God is aware of what. However we’ve been exposing what’s happening.”
Fields seeks a jury trial to find out compensatory, consequential and punitive damages for bodily accidents, emotional trauma and misery, lack of fame, lack of liberty, adversarial penalties for attending court docket proceedings and different damages.
The Metropolis of Akron and the three officers named within the grievance have till the tip of March to file their reply with the court docket. Akron Director of Communications Stephanie Marsh declined a request for remark by Atlanta Black Star “because of the pending litigation.”
