An external investigation conducted by two lawyers hired by the City of Oxford found that the use of force by an Oxford police officer was “reasonable and necessary” while trying to detain a Miami University football player outside a bar.
After a two-month investigation, lawyers David Williamson, of Dayton, and Jonathan Hollingsworth, of Centerville determined that OPD officer Matthew Blauvelt complied with the department’s use of force policy.
“Force should always be the last recourse in police work, but force is authorized when it is reasonable and necessary,” the report says. “Under the unique facts and circumstances of this situation, we feel that it was.”
Williamson and Hollingsworth did not respond to a request for comment.
On Nov. 18, Miami football player Devin Johnson got into a physical altercation with Brick Street Bar employees after he was removed from the bar when attempting to enter through an exit gate. According to the report, police were called to the scene where Johnson ignored verbal commands to roll over and was physical with an officer.
Johnson faces four criminal charges for assault, resisting arrest, underage possession and criminal trespassing. His trial is scheduled to take place starting April 9 at the Butler County Area 1 Court.
“I think it leaves a lot of questions unanswered,” Ryan Agee, Johnson’s lawyer, said of the report.
In a video that went viral on social media, Blauvelt is seen punching Johnson three times and kneeing him twice while trying to arrest Johnson. Blauvelt, who was interviewed for the report, said when he arrived at the scene, three employees from Brick Street Bar were holding on to Johnson in an attempt to restrain him. When Blauvelt grabbed Johnson’s arm, two employees let go of him, and Johnson grabbed Blauvelt by his shoulder to pull him on top of him.
“At this point, Blauvelt realized he was struggling with a much younger, bigger, and stronger man whom he had just observed three other men unable to control,” the report says.
While the lawyers felt that the use of force was necessary, they recommended that the department update their defensive tactics and de-escalation techniques and train officers on them more frequently.
“Chief Jones and his Command Staff have developed a training plan and will continue to work on necessary improvements as a result of this report,” a statement from OPD said.
OPD Lieutenant Lara Fening said the training plan was developed in March 2024 and covers various topics such as patrol skills and professional training. Fening also confirmed that Blauvelt was still with the department and is back in his patrolling role.
In addition to complying with policies, the lawyers were also asked to consider if the actions of the police department were in “good police practice” with the collection, recording and preservation of the video files obtained from Brick Street Bar that night.
Although the incident happened on Nov. 18, the viral video footage, which was from Brick Street Bar’s surveillance camera, wasn’t posted to social media until Dec. 24. In a statement from the police department that day, it stated that the footage was not included in the initial review of the incident.
According to the report, on the night of the incident, Officer Matt Hardin went into the bar’s office to review the surveillance cameras with the bar manager and was joined by a second manager. According to the report, the videos were downloaded to a USB drive and delivered to the police department that night.
Officer Paul Hellwarth, who was also dispatched to the scene and transported Johnson to the police department, prepared the incident report and attempted to upload the videos from the USB drive to the department’s electronic storage system, but only two of the three videos were uploaded.
In interviews with Hellwarth for the report, the conclusion was that the third video was too large of a file for the storage system. Therefore, he put the USB drive in the evidence room, but when he was filling out the incident report, he did not reference that the drive contained three video files or that the third video failed to upload.
Police Chief John Jones signed off on the use of force report without knowing that the USB drive contained three videos, as only two were uploaded into the storage system.
After interviewing different officers who were dispatched to the scene that night, the lawyers discovered that five individuals saw all three videos, and three of those five saw them in the bar’s office. However, Jones never saw the third video, which was the one posted to social media.
The lawyers found that this was not a violation of the police department policy as the videos were in OPD’s custody as of that night.
“Prior to this report, as a result of this incident, the Division has already implemented procedures that will improve the handling of a use of force reports and the administrative review,” the statement from OPD said. “As a result of this report, OPD is evaluating additional measures that will improve this process.”
Fening said one of the procedural changes includes submitting two sets of audio and visual evidence, one for the incident report and one for the use of force report. Previously, the use of force report just mentioned evidence, but now the evidence will be included with the report.
The lawyers were expected to present their findings at Tuesday’s city council meeting, but due to illnesses and the weather, the item was removed from public participation. Prior to the public city council meeting, council met in executive session to discuss the findings, councilor Alex French confirmed.
“We had a very good discussion with our law director and our police chief about the report that came out,” French said.
The report will be discussed at the next city council meeting on April 16. Oxford mayor William Snavely declined a request for comment until after that meeting.
