Two weeks after the independent police auditor and the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board challenged the Akron Police Department over the arrest of and use of force against Dierra Fields, members again raised an issue the board has long been fighting for: They want their own independent attorney and don’t want city attorneys representing them.
“For any one lawyer, law firm, or law department to provide advice to both us and to the police department and other parts of the city administration, it just can’t work,” CPOB member Bob Gippin said during Wednesday night’s meeting, where he introduced a unanimously passed resolution to initiate formal discussions with the city for the board to get its own independent legal counsel.
In the Dierra Fields case, the potential for conflicts of interest between the CPOB and the city’s legal staff are numerous.
The City of Akron Law Department:
- Represents the Akron Police Department, including the officer who body slammed and arrested Fields and the sergeant who ruled the officer’s body slam to be “objectively reasonable.”
- Also represents the CPOB and Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell, who issued a report determining the police officer’s use of force to be “not objectively reasonable” and said there was no probable cause for Fields’ arrest or prosecution.
- Is prosecuting Fields in the Akron Municipal Court for resisting arrest and obstructing official business. Finnell may be called to testify in Fields’ defense and could be cross examined by a city prosecutor when he’s on the stand.
- Would represent the police department and city in a potential federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Fields, where Finnell’s report and testimony could be used in her favor against the city.
“I think this is a really good move,” said CPOB member Brandyn Costa about the board getting its own attorney, “and I don’t think it’s uncommon with respect to the way that oversight boards operate across the country in having independent legal counsel.”
Lack of independent counsel an issue since ‘day one’ for auditor
Finnell, hired by the CPOB in March, didn’t chime in about needing a lawyer during the meeting but told Signal Akron afterward that it’s been an issue since day one of his tenure.
“When I first got here, I was concerned about not having independent counsel,” he said. “Every place I’ve been, we had independent counsel just for the very reason that we encountered in my first report [about Dierra Fields]. The city attorneys, they work for the city, they work for the police department – I don’t believe they’ll give us bad counsel, but it’s just the fact that our goals and objectives may not always align with theirs. I need independent legal opinion to stand on, and I have to be confident in that opinion.”
Finnell’s Diara Fields report was the first challenge to an Akron Police Department ruling on a use-of-force case since Akron voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 10 and established the CPOB in the wake of Jayland Walker’s killing in 2022.
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Finnell criticized Officer Thomas Shoemaker for body slamming Fields, along with a sergeant for not intervening, and challenged the internal APD report that praised Shoemaker’s actions. Ahead of Fields’ trial – which was scheduled for a week later but has since been delayed – Finnell also said there was no probable cause for either charge the Kenmore woman is facing.
Just over an hour after the independent police auditor issued his report on April 18, court records indicate Fields’ defense attorney, Imokhai Okolo, listed Finnell as an expert witness for the defense. Finnell could be used to undermine a case being prosecuted by – and could face cross examination from – the same department that provides him with legal advice in his role as auditor. A similar dynamic is in play if Fields files a civil rights lawsuit because of the use of force.
“There is conflict because my report does conflict with the findings of the police department and it is critical of that process, which resulted in someone being criminally charged,” Finnell told Signal Akron on Wednesday. “It creates a conflict when the city’s law and prosecutor’s office and the legal advisers representing those entities are also my attorneys, and I have a differing opinion about how I think things should go.”
The auditor and CPOB having their own attorney, Finnell said, relieves the city’s law department of having to make those complicated and potentially conflicted decisions.
“As a matter of doing business, it’s just good practice to have our own legal adviser and everyone else has their own legal adviser.”
Signal Akron asked the spokesperson for Mayor Shammas Malik’s administration if the city believed there was a conflict of interest and if there was a budgetary or legal reason why the CPOB didn’t have its own attorney.
“Members of the administration regularly attend CPOB meetings and we look forward to addressing this matter with the Board,” Stephanie Marsh responded. “We can’t provide further comment at this time.”
The source of funding for a potential independent attorney is not clear.
Gippin told Signal Akron that it’s going to be a topic of discussion with the city, and he hopes the money comes out of the law department’s budget: “They’ve got a pot of money that’s generally for outside counsel, and it’s our hope that our counsel would be paid out of that fund. That’s among the details that would be sorted through.”