Within seconds, Martínez tries to grab Spiers’ arm. In the body camera footage, which was shown again in court on Thursday, Martínez makes contact with Spiers and Richard, issuing commands to “come over here” as he approaches the apparently confused couple. Stangel beat Spiers, a domestic violence suspect, with a baton on Oct.
He was presented as the final witness in the prosecution’s case against Stangel, who is the first on-duty San Francisco police officer in the modern era to be criminally tried for use of excessive force.
What Stangel’s defense has characterized as unlawful resistance from Spiers was, in fact, natural confusion to a poorly executed approach by SFPD officers, according to Clark, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and current police-practices consultant.Ĭlark was on the stand for about five hours. Clark said both SFPD officers failed to de-escalate the situation, and testified that Stangel’s use of his baton to beat Spiers was wholly unwarranted. Roger Clark, an expert on police practices and use of force, testified Thursday in the trial against San Francisco Police Officer Terrance Stangel that Stangel and his partner acted counter to their law enforcement training when they rapidly approached and beat unarmed Black man Dacari Spiers in 2019.