MAHONING COUNTY Acquitted man files lawsuit

The suit says Newell Spann's civil rights were violated by police.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A city man, acquitted last week on charges of shooting at police officers, is suing the same officers.
Newell Spann, 25, of East Avondale Avenue, is seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Defendants are Deputy John Beshara of the county sheriff's department, Patrolman Michael Cox of the Youngstown Police Department, county Sheriff Randall Wellington and the city. Beshara is also a special deputy U.S. marshal.
The matter is assigned to Judge Robert Lisotto.
The suit was filed by attorneys Don L. Hanni and David J. Betras, the same lawyers who defended Spann in his recent federal court trial.
Spann was indicted in March on charges of assaulting a federal officer and using a firearm during a crime of violence. A jury in U.S. District Court, Youngstown, found him innocent last week.
In the reports
According to reports, Spann exchanged gunfire with Beshara, who sat in an unmarked cruiser with Cox. The officers were not in uniform and were wearing winter coats that covered their badges and police shirts.
The officers said they believed Spann was someone else, someone for whom they had an arrest warrant.
When they tried to stop him, guns were pulled and shots were fired. No one was hit. They did not identify themselves as police.
Hanni said Spann did not realize they were police and thought they were going to rob him.
The suit says Beshara violated Spann's civil rights by shooting at him and placing his knee in the middle of Spann's back during his subsequent arrest.
Cox, the suit says, kicked Spann several times in the face and back during the arrest.
Wellington and the city are accused of negligence in their training of the officers.
Hanni said the case smacks of racial profiling because the officers are white and Spann is black, but Robert Bulford, the assistant U.S. attorney who tried the court case, denied that.
bjackson@vindy.com