A white Akron police officer faces a second civil lawsuit accusing him of using excessive force against a Black man after he punched a passenger during a traffic stop, breaking his nose.
The federal lawsuit filed against Officer Warren Spragg and the city of Akron on June 27 alleges illegal use of excessive force, assault and battery and false arrest after Spragg yanked Terrell Battles, who was a passenger in his brother’s car, out of the vehicle and onto the ground and then repeatedly struck him in the head and torso.
Spragg and the city were previously sued in 2024 after the officer punched and arrested a man named Jordan Ely for resisting arrest. Ely was later acquitted of that charge and the city settled his civil lawsuit for $15,000, Signal Akron reported.
The current complaint centers around an encounter Battles had with Akron police on June 28, 2024, when his brother was pulled over in West Akron for an expired tag violation and then was arrested for driving without a valid license.
Battles was also asked to produce his driver’s license, and complied, but then refused to exit the vehicle when told to by Spragg. Police bodycam video shows Battles questioning why that was necessary for about a minute, and then the officer opened the car door, grabbed Battles and dragged him to the ground.
As he and other officers pinned Battles down and attempted to cuff his hands behind his back, Spragg punched Battles several times in the head, face and torso, the footage showed, as Battles could be heard saying, “Why are you punching me?”
The third punch by Spragg broke his nose, the complaint says. Police video shows blood streaming from Battle’s nose and Spragg’s bloodied knuckles.
Battles was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of official business, charges that he pleaded not guilty to and which were later dismissed, the lawsuit says, noting that Battles was “not actively resisting and posed no danger” to Spragg or the other officers.
In July 2024, Sgt. Utomhin Okoh conducted a use of force investigation of the incident, and cleared Spragg, finding the force he used to be “objectively reasonable.” The police department did not discipline Spragg for his conduct.
But in January 2025 the City of Akron Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell released a report detailing his review of the arrest, which concluded that the level of force used by Spragg against Battles was excessive.
Finnell also found that Spragg “failed to adequately and clearly communicate his intentions and actions, which exacerbated the situation,” and “missed multiple opportunities to calm the situation through dialogue and rapport-building, relying instead on commands and physical force.”
The auditor recommended that the Akron PD change the disposition of Spragg’s use of force from “Objectively Reasonable” to “Not Objectively Reasonable,” and to discipline the officer.
The lawsuit notes that Spragg has “an extensive history of excessive force and use of force generally” during his tenure with the Akron Police Department, and claims he has the highest amount of use of force cases in the department.
Attorney Imokhai Okolo, who is representing Battles, told Signal Akron in February that Spragg had at least 27 use-of-force incidents between January 2023 and August 2024, which he believes is the most of any Akron police officer during that period.
Finnell called Spragg “a frequent flyer” for use of force when he recommended that Spragg and other Akron police officers receive remedial training on the use of force and de-escalation at a Citizens’ Police Oversight Board meeting that month.
Besides claiming that Spragg violated federal civil rights laws when he used excessive force, assaulted and falsely arrested Battles, the lawsuit alleges that the city of Akron is liable for his actions and has for years “acquiesced to a culture of violence” in its police department.
The city has done so, the complaint says, by failing to properly train its officers on the use of unreasonable and excessive force; failing to properly investigate it when it occurs; failing to discipline, counsel and otherwise control police officers who engage in it; by condoning violent punches to the face when individuals pose no threat to police officer safety; by maintaining a “police code of silence” that encourages officers to remain silent or give false or misleading information during investigations; by letting supervisors automatically ratify their officers’ actions despite clear evidence to the contrary; and by allowing city employees to interfere with or hamper the oversight activities of the police auditor.
These de facto policies, practices and customs of the Akron Police Department, the lawsuit argues, result in “little or no meaningful investigation or disciplinary action in response to this pattern of misconduct, thereby creating a culture or climate where members of the police can and do escape their acts of misconduct with impunity.”
The complaint says the department’s use of excessive force disproportionately involves African-Americans, and lists six cases in which it alleges that unarmed Black men and women who were not resisting were violently arrested by Akron police. They include Dierra Fields, a Black woman who was arrested in her family home when an Akron police officer (who is also facing a civil lawsuit) body slammed her, causing injuries.
Battles claims he has suffered physical and psychological injuries, emotional trauma, loss of reputation, loss of liberty, and seeks a jury trial to determine unspecified compensatory, consequential and punitive damages.
Of Spragg, Battles told reporters, “I want to see him get off the force. There is good cops and there is bad cops, but bad cops like that don’t deserve to protect.”
The city of Akron and Spraggs have 21 days from the date they are served to file a response to the complaint, or until late July.
Meanwhile, on June 7, the Akron City Council voted to hire a consultant to conduct a review of the city’s use-of-force policy. The city will spend $350,000 on the contract, reported Ideastream.org.
The policy review would ensure Akron police officers have the best possible training, Mayor Shammas Malik said. It would help make it clearer for officers to determine when to use force and when to de-escalate, he said.
“If we’re putting them in difficult situations and not equipping them with the best possible policies and best possible training, in these life-and-death situations that we have seen over this last year and a half and before, then I think that’s a missed opportunity,” Malik said Monday.
Akron Police Chief Brian Harding said on average, the department responds to approximately 135,000 calls for service each year with 250 to 300 of them involving use-of-force.
“We owe it to our residents to have the best possible approach to these situations,” Malik said.
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