By Liz Oakes, The Cincinnati Enquirer
and Perry Schaible, Enquirer contributor

WOODLAWN - In his nearly 30 years on the force, Walter Obermeyer says, nothing has hit this Hamilton County village like the uproar over the lawsuit alleging that police beat a 66-year-old man.

Clarence Campbell of Glendale sued the village and Woodlawn police officers in U.S. District Court last week for $6 million in damages.

The lawsuit claims that Campbell was struck, sprayed with a chemical irritant and arrested after he parked in a fire lane outside the Kroger store in Woodlawn last year.

Campbell last week distributed copies of a videotape that he says shows officers pulling him from the car and striking him as he lay on the ground. The videotape made national news - unwelcome publicity for the 2,816-population village that prides itself on its parks.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before," said Obermeyer, 58, acting municipal manager and former police chief.

A dozen or so village residents contacted said they didn't want to comment, but two said they were outraged.

"I was shocked, very shocked," said Jennifer Headings, who added she is afraid for her parents, both Woodlawn residents in their 80s.

"It was that man that day, it could be me tomorrow," Headings said.

Sarah Cody of Grove Road said she couldn't tell too much from the videotape.

"I figure I don't have the whole story," Cody said, but added, "there should be some suspensions or some jobs at stake or something."

Seventeen full-time and four auxiliary officers are on Woodlawn's force, according to acting Chief Jack Bennett. The village hasn't had a permanent police chief since 2002, when Obermeyer stepped into his current job after then-Village Manager Jack Layne left for a job in Pennsylvania.

Obermeyer had retired in 1995 as assistant police chief. Three years later, he said, village officials asked him to return temporarily. He ended up staying on as chief.

"They asked me to come back and assist them with getting the Police Department back on track, and interview and possibly select the chief," Obermeyer said.

"That never happened."

For a while, he served as both police chief and acting village manager, but it was overwhelming, he said.

"It's too much responsibility up here (in administration) and a lot of responsibility back there (in the Police Department)," Obermeyer said. "I couldn't handle it."

He said he hopes to return to being the village's police chief full-time, but that he's been asked to stay on as village manager through the end of the year.

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E-mail loakes@enquirer.com