Sperry Officer Accused Of Excessive Force Remains On Leave

The Sperry City Council voted Wednesday to leave an officer accused of excessive force, on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Officer Eric Downing is accused of treating 78-year-old Charles Griffith roughly after he said Downing pepper sprayed, bloodied and humiliated him.

6/13/2014 Related Story: Sperry Man Claims Officer 'Bloodied And Humiliated' Him At Traffic Stop

Griffith and his wife were on their way home from church when he said Downing pulled them over for driving on the wrong side of the street. Griffith said he has health issues with his legs and got out of the car to wait.

"He come up there and said, ‘get back in the car,' and I did. He wanted to see my driver's license and he just started saying he was going to take me to jail and all this kind of stuff. I hadn't did anything wrong," Griffith said.

He said when Downing approached, he told Griffith to sit in the car, then, tried to pull him up by twisting his arm.

Griffith said he eventually went to the hospital after being bruised and bloody.

On June 13th, Griffith, his wife and other Sperry residents met at Sperry city hall in hopes of talking to city leaders about the incident, but an official meeting wasn't held because the mayor recently had open heart surgery.

Sperry Police Chief, Mike Smith released a statement saying, "The officer stopped this individual, but this individual may not have been as compliant as everyone thinks he was."

The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office is leading the investigation.