A San Francisco police officer was found not guilty of the three charges of assault and battery he faced after beating Dacari Spiers with his baton, breaking his wrist and leg, in 2019.

On Monday, a jury found Officer Terrance Stangel not guilty of the three charges but were deadlocked on a fourth charge of unlawfully beating Spiers under color of authority.

The incident leading to the charges and trial occurred on Oct. 7, 2019 when Stangel and his partner, Officer Cuauhtemoc Martinez, encountered Spiers and his then-girlfriend when they were responding to 911 calls of a man choking and dragging a woman.  

Body camera video shows Martinez grab Spiers and order him to get against the wall. According to prosecutors, neither officer had given Spiers reasonable commands before Stangle started beating him with his Baton. Stangle struck Spiers at least seven times with his baton breaking his wrist and leg.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors argued that Stangel disregarded his police training to de-escalate and take time to assess the situation and instead escalated it. Although Spiers may have resisted and questioned the officers’ advances, prosecutors told jurors that he acted within his rights. 

“Five strikes when he’s lying on the ground, in the fetal position, writhing in pain, is proof beyond a reasonable doubt of assault and battery,” Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Young said during closing arguments in the three-week trial.

Stangel’s attorney portrayed her client as a well-meaning officer who was trying to protect his partner from a “violent” and “assaultive” Spiers. The defense called two expert witnesses to support its case, including an SFPD training officer who said the beating was justified. 

“I was trying to get him to stop fighting my partner and I was trying to us get out of the situation without getting hurt,” Stangel said during his testimony.

Assistant District Young said the not guilty verdict was “hugely disappointing.” She said she believed “there was abundant evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of an assault by excessive force once Dacari Spiers was on the ground and was being held down by his partner.”

AKRON, Ohio – A 26-year-old man from Kent, Ohio has been charged with assault after cell phone video showed him yelling racial slurs at a Black woman before punching her in the face. 

According to Akron Municipal Court records, Andrew Walls is facing two counts of assault for allegedly attacking Cameron Morgan, 23, and another woman outside a bar in Ohio on Feb. 27. Walls is also facing one count of possessing a firearm while intoxicated. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.  

The brief video, recorded by Morgan’s sister and posted on Instagram by Morgan’s father, shows a man who appears to be drunk shouting racial slurs at a group of men outside a bar. 

“I’m the only black person around. I didn’t know who he was talking to, but he was calling white people a racial slur” Morgan told Fox8 news. “I was like, ‘Who talks like that? You can’t say that. That is not okay.’”

The man, later identified as Walls, walks to Morgan and yells, “Nigger bitch. Shut your mouth!”, before punching her in the face. 

“Something just triggered him because he looked at me dead in the eye, he called me an N-word slur, and then sucker punches me right in the mouth,” Morgan told News4SA.

Others tackled Walls after the punch and Morgan told police that when she tried to break up that fight Walls dragged her by her hair causing her to hit her head on the ground.

Morgan said she  suffered a concussion and a bruised lip from the attack. 

Walls surrendered to police a day after the incident and was booked into Summit County Jail for the night but was released the following day after posting $25,000 bail. A temporary restraining order was granted to Morgan.

Akron police said the information has been turned over to the F.B.I. as Walls may be facing federal hate crime charges.

“We will not leave any stone unturned to bring him to justice to the fullest extent possible,” said Akron Police Capt. David Laughlin.