More than five months after she was body slammed and arrested by an Akron police officer inside her family’s home, Dierra Fields will appear Thursday morning before an Akron jury as city prosecutors try to prove their case against her.
The 24-year-old single mother of two is accused of resisting arrest and obstructing official business, charges her defense attorney, Imokhai Okolo, believes she’s only facing so the city can reduce liability in a potential civil lawsuit. Fields’ trial will be held in Judge Jerry Larson’s courtroom in the Akron Municipal Court.
In April, Signal Akron first reported about the January incident where Officer Thomas Shoemaker and Sgt. Timothy Shmigal responded to a chaotic family argument inside a Kenmore home.
During the encounter, recorded on body-worn cameras, Shoemaker approached Fields and attempted to handcuff her. When she turned her torso to question the officer, Shoemaker lost his grip on one of her wrists.
At that point, he immediately grabbed each of her biceps from behind and pulled her in. He bent his knees, pulled Fields to his right side, sprung up and propelled the 5’3” woman in the air, violently slamming her face-down on the ground.
She was charged with resisting arrest – a charge of obstructing official business was added later. Okolo told Signal Akron that officers accused her of that to justify the force used against her.
Police auditor weighs in on first case
In his first investigation after being hired, the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board’s new independent police auditor, Anthony Finnell, challenged the Akron Police Department’s conduct in the case.
Finnell’s report skewered Shoemaker for body slamming and arresting Fields, saying the force he used was not reasonable. He also criticized Shmigal for not intervening in the incident and challenged the internal APD investigation that praised Shoemaker’s actions. Finnell called for an internal affairs investigation into the pair and said in his report that the charges against Fields were not reasonable.
Despite Finnell’s assertion that there was no probable cause for either charge Fields faces, City of Akron prosecutors did not drop the case.
In March, prosecutors tacked on an obstructing official business charge. Okolo said that charge came after Fields rejected a deal to plead to a single disorderly conduct charge, which would then be sealed. The attorney also told Signal Akron that prosecutors had previously offered – unethically, to Okolo – to drop the case against Fields if she agreed not to sue.
“One hundred percent there’s no charge” against Fields if Shoemaker hadn’t body slammed her, Okolo said in April. “One of the ways you can beat an excessive force case on the civil side is to claim that they resisted arrest.”
The internal affairs investigator for the APD praised Shoemaker for his restraint and found the takedown “objectively reasonable.”
“I believe that Officer Shoemaker’s actions were not only justified, but reserved as well,” Sgt. Jason Belacic concluded. “It would have been very easy for someone in the same situation to lose their patience and react in a way that would reflect poorly on the Akron Police Department.”
Maneuverings by prosecution and defense set the stage for trial
Finnell’s report came out a week before Fields’ trial was initially scheduled to start in late April. After the report’s release, Okolo successfully asked the judge to push back the trial date to allow him “to review this potentially exculpatory evidence and arrange possible expert witnesses.”
The case has been full of legal maneuvering from both the prosecution and defense.
After Signal Akron’s initial story in April, prosecutors added reporter Doug Brown to their proposed witness list and also filed a motion to restrict public comment for all trial participants, including witnesses. Prosecutors sought the same restrictions for Okolo and Fields. Brown was eventually removed from the witness list and Larson, the judge, rejected the motion to restrict public comment.
Moments after Finnell released his report, Okolo filed his witness list with the independent police auditor listed as an expert witness. Larson, Okolo said, eventually rejected Finnell as an expert witness.
Prosecutors also filed a motion to block Okolo from mentioning any previous use-of-force incidents involving their witnesses during the trial. Signal Akron reported that Shoemaker was previously caught on video punching an activist during a protest after Jayland Walker’s killing, and that Belacic, who cleared him of wrongdoing in the Fields incident, was previously sued for excessive use of force. Both are on the prosecution’s witness list.
“Here any testimony regarding use of force incidents by any of the officers testifying in the above captioned case would solely be used to enflame the jury and would not have any probative value,” former Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Bradley wrote.
It is unclear based on the court record how Larson ruled on the use-of-force motion.
