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Final charges dismissed against IMPD officers acquitted in May 2020 arrest

The remaining charges against two IMPD officers who stood trial last year for striking two women with their batons during an arrest in May 2020 have been dropped.

INDIANAPOLIS — The remaining charges against two IMPD officers who stood trial last year for striking two women with their batons during an arrest in 2020 have been dropped.

Charges of battery and official misconduct against IMPD officers Jonathan Horlock and Nathaniel Schauwecker were dismissed Tuesday, Feb. 13.

(NOTE: The video in the player above is from a December 2023 report on the acquittal of IMPD officers Jonathan Horlock and Nathaniel Schauwecker.)

The officers were charged in the case stemming from the Black Lives Matter protests and vandalism that followed in downtown Indianapolis in May 2020. Horlock and Schauwecker were part of a group of officers ordered to arrest people at Washington and Pennsylvania streets who were violating an 8 p.m. curfew on Sunday, May 31. 

One of the women involved, Ivore Westfield, suffered major bruising and open sores during the arrest. Attorney Terence Kinnard filed the civil lawsuit on behalf of Westfield and Rachel Harding, the other woman arrested by the officers. 

In December 2023, a jury found the officers not guilty of four of the charges against them after more than 10 hours of deliberation, The jury, however, could not reach a verdict on one charge of battery and one charge of official misconduct. 

IMPD maintained throughout the trial that the officers followed department policy in their use of force. 

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