An Akron police officer has been sued in federal court, again, after repeatedly punching Terrell Battles, an Akron resident, in the face during an arrest following a traffic stop in which Battles was a passenger in the car.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday in Akron’s federal court against Officer Warren Spragg IV and the City of Akron, alleges unconstitutional use of excessive force, assault, false arrest and other counts.
Spragg and the city were previously sued in 2024 after the officer punched and arrested a man named Jordan Ely (a jury acquitted Ely of resisting arrest and the city settled the suit for $15,000). Both incidents were recorded on video.
The latest suit stems from a June 2024 traffic stop, when Battles was a passenger in his brother’s car when it was pulled over for expired tags. After Battles questioned Spragg about why he, as a passenger, had to provide his identification, Spragg demanded he get out of the car and then pummelled Battles when he continued to question the officer.
Spragg punched Battles several more times while he and other officers pulled him out of the car and pinned him to the ground. Battles was then handcuffed and arrested — he was charged with obstructing official business and resisting arrest.
Akron prosecutors eventually dropped the charges against Battles.
Signal Akron detailed the incident in February.
The lawsuit comes months after Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell challenged the Akron Police Department’s approval of the force in the incident. He disagreed with a sergeant who found, in an internal affairs report, that the punches to Battles were appropriate “In order to change his behavior,” because “Terrell was persistent in his noncompliance throughout the incident.”
Since at least September of 2024, Finnell has been raising alarms about the prevalence of Akron police officers punching people in the head, and he called Spragg a “frequent flyer” for force cases.
Attorney Imokhai Okolo represented Ely and now represents Battles in their criminal and civil cases. In the complaint filed late Friday, Okolo said Spragg has the most use-of-force incidents in the APD over the last two years and had APD supervisors conducted a “proper investigation” into him, Battles “would not have been assaulted and his constitutional rights violated” by Spragg.
The lawsuit, which also accuses Akron of municipal liability, said the city “acquiesced to a culture of violence” within the APD by not thoroughly investigating force incidents during arrests and “fostered and condoned a culture of violence” by not removing problematic officers.
The mayor’s office declined to comment about the lawsuit and prevalence of head punches by officers. In a statement to Signal Akron, Okolo wrote:
“This police violence has to stop. Fear of the Fraternal Order of Police has to stop. The city of Akron and leadership within the department need to take action to hold officers accountable for this violence. Without this accountability, officers will continue to be empowered to inflict violence on people in our community. This lawsuit seeks to not only obtain civil accountability for Terrell but to strengthen a legal movement in this city [to] hold police accountable and transform the Akron Police Department.”
