Incident Started Over Parking Space at Market
RAW VIDEO: Raw Tape of Barclay Campbell Arrest
by Jesse Jones, WLWT TV News, Cincinnati
A man who was beaten by police officers in an incident captured by a dashboard-mounted video camera filed a $6 million lawsuit Wednesday.
The suit filed by Barclay Campbell (pictured, left) names several defendants, including the city of Woodlawn, Ohio, several Woodlawn police officers and Krogers.
Campbell, 66, said he was sitting in his car in front of a Kroger store last year when Woodlawn police officer George Wells approached. He was parked in the fire lane while he waited for his wife to come out of the store.
“And a guy comes up to me and says, ‘You’re going to have to move. You’re in the fire lane,’” Campbell said. “And I says ‘OK.’ I was reading a book and I started to put it down, and he says, ‘I mean right now,’ and I said ‘OK.’”
Campbell drove his car to the entrance of an adjacent park, Jones reported.
“I’m sitting in my car,” Campbell said. “A guy swings my door open and jumps in my lap and maces me in the face. And I thought, ‘What in the world did I do?’ Next thing I know, they grabbed me. They had me on the cement. A guy has his hand on the back of my head. My lips are bloodied up. Two guys jumped on my back to handcuff me, and two guys started beating my legs.”
Campbell was charged with obstructing official business, menacing and resisting arrest. The charges were later dropped.
On Tuesday, flanked by his son and his wife, Campbell said his family told Woodlawn city leaders about the incident but got no response.
“After this happened, we talked to the acting city manager and asked if something couldn’t be worked out here,” Donna Campbell said. “And he ignored us. He said he’d get back to us and we never heard another thing from him.”
Attorney Ken Lawson said the officer who initially approached Campbell at Kroger was hired by the store for security.
“Here’s an off-duty officer who hasn’t even clocked in yet to his off-duty detail at Kroger, in shorts and a really not identifiable shirt, arguing with somebody over a parking spot when he doesn’t have the right to enforce traffic laws,” Lawson said.
City and police officials did not comment Wednesday on the videotape.
Residents Surprised By Aggression On Tape
Woodlawn residents said they are used to having police officers that are polite and courteous patrolling the streets of the village, which is just 2.5 square miles with 2,200 residents.
“They walk around, and they’re very courteous,” resident Stan Foster said. “We have very nice police.”
Charles Waller, a resident of the village for all of his 76 years, said what he saw on the videotape seemed out of character.
“Definitely to me, I wouldn’t think the police in Woodlawn would really do anything like that, you know,” he said.
Some people, including Denise Hodge, believe that recent turnover in the 17-member department has ushered in a new attitude.
“Within the past two years, everybody’s new,” Hodge said. “There are a lot of new guys who throw their weight around.”
Walter Obermeyer, the acting Woodlawn city manager and the village’s former police chief, said Wednesday evening that he has not been served with Campbell’s lawsuit.
“I assure the citizens of Woodlawn that we will look into this matter and attempt (to fix) anything that is wrong,” Campbell said.