Eryn Bonner
The public watched a cop punch an Arizona State University cheerleader in the face. She got two black eyes. Police got dragged. Now she’s being charged with multiple crimes.
Her lawyer on Thursday said that Tempe police are charging Eryn Bonner in a misguided attempt to save face for her violent arrest. Untold thousands of people have watched a bystander’s video of a Tempe police officer tackling the 21-year-old Black woman in the street and punching her.
The Tempe Police Department submitted three misdemeanor charges against Bonner. Her arrest outside of C.A.S.A. on Mill Avenue last month prompted outrage from community members and politicians who criticized the department and called for an investigation into the officers. The police union came out in support of them.
That turmoil has clouded the justice process, Bonner’s attorney Benjamin Taylor said.
“The only reason why the city prosecutor would charge is because of politics, because of pressure from the union, because of pressure from the police chief or the police officers,” said Taylor.
Tempe police originally submitted two felonies and one misdemeanor against Bonner after the incident. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell declined to prosecute the two felony charges –– aggravated assault and resisting arrest. In a written statement, a police spokesperson said that the remaining misdemeanor for hindering or interfering with police was dropped last week while the department reviewed its charges against Bonner. The department has since submitted new charges of assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and obstruction to the city prosecutor to review.
Taylor said the city prosecutor should follow Mitchell’s example and decline to prosecute, because the charges are so similar.
“Looking at the video, I think anybody can tell that the officers were the ones who were being the aggressors here,” he said.
The bystander video of the July 18 incident, and body camera and surveillance footage later released by the department, showed Bonner standing behind the officers yelling at them to release her friend. One of the officers ordered her to back up before shoving her with both hands across the sidewalk and to the ground. Bonner stood up and rushed back over yelling at him. The officer then grabbed her by the arms, tackled her onto a nearby bike and punched her in the face. The two tussled for a few seconds before another officer helped restrain her.
The department initiated an investigation into the officers for their actions.
Taylor, who has sued many law enforcement agencies in the Valley, declined to say whether his client planned to sue the department. Arizona law gives her 180 days from the date of the incident to file a notice of claim. If she does sue, ongoing criminal charges could complicate her case or even tank it in federal court.
Taylor released a written statement from Bonner’s family saying the incident brought them anguish.
“There are no words to fully describe the heartbreak of watching our daughter be hurt by someone entrusted to protect and serve our community,” they wrote. “The hardest thing is seeing the pain and sadness in her eyes that we cannot take away. Expecting public servants to live up to the highest standards of their profession is not an act of animosity toward those who serve with honor. Rather, it is essential to preserving public trust and upholding the integrity and legitimacy of our institutions.”
According to the department, the officers were breaking up a physical altercation between three men outside of the bar when Bonner tried to intervene.
Video shows Bonner and two Black men, identified by the department as 21-year-olds Jonathan Nwariaku and Isaiah Johnson, leaving C.A.S.A. and passing a white man standing on the sidewalk holding pizza boxes. There’s an exchange between the trio and the man –– no one has come forward with what was said. The trio starts to walk away when the man with the pizza shrugs and says something. One of the men with Bonner, it’s unclear which, turns back towards him. Bonner and the other man pull him away and off-camera. A few seconds later the man who’d been restrained reappears. The man with the pizza thrusts the box at him. The man slaps at it in return, knocking it from his hands. His friend grabs him to pull him away. That’s when the officers, who were riding past on their bikes, tackle Nwariaku and Johnson.
Nwariaku was charged with assault and disorderly conduct for fighting. Johnson was charged with disorderly conduct for fighting and passive resisting arrest.
The officers should have separated the three men and figured out what was going on rather than immediately tackling the two, said Taylor.
“There was no fight,” Taylor said. “There was no immediate threat or immediate violence. They could have easily gone up and talked to all of the people involved, the three people involved, the guy who was holding the pizza, the other two gentlemen, and just say, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ But that didn’t happen.”
Instead, the officers assumed they knew the dynamics of the situation, Taylor said, and escalated the violence. Taylor didn’t want to say race was the reason the officers targeted Bonner and her friends so quickly, but he also said it couldn’t be ignored.
“We never want to, you know, try to play the race card or say it’s a racial issue, but the elephant is in the room,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what color they are. They should have separated all three of them and talked to them.”
The city needs to hold the officers accountable, he said, instead of charging his client.
“That’s what the city of Tempe does,” he said. “They mess up. They put charges on Eryn Bonner.”
Clarissa Sosin
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