NORWOOD, OH.
A lawsuit has been filed against the same Norwood officer who was caught on surveillance video throwing a woman against a wall.
Officer Bobby Ward was suspended in September after it appeared on camera
A Norwood Police officer appeared in court on Wednesday after video surveillance caught him in an altercation with a suspect.
Charges have been dropped against a woman who was shown on surveillance video being roughed up by a Norwood Police officer. Denise Diallo, 30, was facing charges of resisting arrest, possession and drugs
"The allegation is that my client was roughed up in the lobby of the Norwood Police Department," says Mike Allen, the attorney for Claude Henderson.
Allen says his client was ‘roughed up' by Robert 'Bobby' Ward, the same officer who was forced to resign after pleading no contest to throwing Denise Diallo against a wall in a holding cell inside the Norwood police station. Ward was sentenced to 60 days of house arrest in November and was placed on one year probation.
"My client, Mr. Henderson, was minding his own business walking down the street in the city of Norwood in the Surrey Square area," added Allen. "When he was approached by Norwood police officers, was placed under arrest, taken back to the Norwood police department, placed in the temporary holding cell, and after all that, was only issued a Disorderly Conduct citation."
That crime is a minor misdemeanor which carries a small fine. Then, Allen says, when Henderson started to leave the police station he looked in his wallet and didn't see the same amount of money he went in there with.
"When he noticed some money missing from his personal belongings, he went back to the Norwood police station and confronted the police about that and talked to him. They weren't happy about that, a melee ensued. The video was obtained of that confrontation, shown to the prosecutor, and those charges were dismissed," said Allen.
On Tuesday, Henderson spoke with FOX19 about the incident.
"I said to Ward, the officer that was actually on top of me that what is this all about and he just said 'well, Disorderly Conduct and Resisting Arrest, kinda like he was just making it up on the spot. So, I just kinda went 'okay, we'll see about that," explained Henderson.
Denise Diallo's lawsuit is still pending. Allen has also filed a federal lawsuit against Ward personally, the Norwood Police and the City of Norwood.
"If they're willing to show this much aggression and rage at a time when you would think that they're supposed to be on their best behavior, then what might have happened if it was on a side street, dark alley, no cameras, no witnesses... And we've already seen from other examples that people have already gotten hurt through Norwood. A woman got her wrist broken and it needs to stop, plain and simple," said Henderson.
FOX19 attempted to contact Ward to no avail, and on Thursday we left messages with Norwood's Police Information Officer Tom Williams, Jr. and with the Mayor of Norwood, Tom Williams, Sr. Neither has returned calls yet.