BUTLER — A man who was hit by a car while fleeing police in downtown Butler last summer has filed a federal lawsuit against Butler Police Chief Eric Winbigler and former Butler Mayor Wesley Dingus.
Attorneys from Cleveland-based firm Weston Hurd LLC filed a 31-page complaint on behalf of Anthony Ward, whom Dingus allegedly ran over multiple times on July 11, 2025.
Ward was running away from Butler Police Chief Eric Winbigler when Dingus struck him, crushing his left ankle and fracturing his left femur, according to the complaint.
Ward’s grandmother Mary Hunter was with him at the time and is also a plaintiff in the suit.
Ward and Hunter brought a total of 23 charges in their complaint, including allegations of excessive force, unlawful seizure, negligence, assault and battery, aggravated assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“Their physical and psychic injuries are ongoing, permanent, and with reasonable medical certainty, they will suffer pain and disability into the indefinite future,” attorneys Paul J. Cristallo, Joshua M. Miklowski and Tina Y. Rhodes wrote.
The suit offers a detailed account from the perspective of Ward and Hunter of what happened that day. Some of the details contradict statements made by Butler officials.
The complaint alleges that shortly after the incident, Dingus attempted to obtain and/or destroy surveillance footage from the gas station where Winbigler tried to arrest Ward.
It also claims both Winbigler and Dingus’ wife Tiffany expressed ambivalence towards Ward’s injuries in the immediate aftermath, telling Hunter that Ward ‘shouldn’t have run.’
Ward, who was wanted at the time for violating parole, was arrested by local law enforcement at the scene. He is currently being held at Grafton Correctional Institution in Lorain County.
Dingus told Richland Source on Wednesday that he believes someone might have mixed up stories from incidents elsewhere. He said security footage of the incident, including some videos that haven’t made it to social media platforms, will show what truly happened.
“They can see factually some of these things that they say are happening didn’t happen in the village of Butler,” he said. “I’m not saying they didn’t happen somewhere to someone.”
The former mayor specifically countered accusations that his wife had a physical altercation with Hunter and that he put his car in reverse, then forward and reverse again with Ward trapped underneath.
Dingus also pushed back against excessive force claims against Winbigler.
“Chief Winbigler didn’t even pull his taser out,” he said. “There wasn’t even force, let alone excessive force.”
Ward and Hunter claim Butler officials violated their civil rights
The complaint acknowledged Ward had an active warrant out for his arrest at the time, but claimed Dingus and Winbigler violated Ward’s civil rights by using excessive force when Ward was unarmed and not a threat to the safety of others.
Ward’s attorneys also argued he was not resisting arrest at the time, but was fleeing for his own safety.
“At no time did Ward verbally abuse, threaten, assault, or otherwise say anything or act in a manner that would lead Winbigler to believe he was a threat of physical violence. Ward complied with all of Winbigler’s orders,” the suit claims.
In the filling, attorneys requested a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $25,000.
The full list of defendants includes Dingus, Winbigler, Tiffany Dingus, the village of Butler and other unnamed village employees, identified in the suit as John Doe Officials 1-5 and John Doe Officers 1-5.
Dingus is now a defendant in three separate court cases — two of them related to the alleged events of July, 11 2025.
The Bellville Police Department handled an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ward’s arrest last year. That investigation included interviewst with Dingus, Winbigler, Ward, Hunter, Ward’s then-girlfriend and other eyewitnesses.
After the department’s findings were forwarded to the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office, a Richland County grand jury indicted Dingus on four counts. They included aggravated assault (a fourth-degree felony), vehicular assault (a fourth-degree felony), falsification (a first-degree misdemeanor) and dereliction of duty (a second-degree misdemeanor).
Dingus pleaded not guilty and was released from the Richland County Jail on a $25,000 bond. A jury trial in that case is scheduled for November.
Dingus is also a defendant in an unrelated case in Mansfield Municipal Court, where he faces two charges of misdemeanor voyeurism. A jury trial has been scheduled for July 29 in that case.
Ward claims Butler police chief threatened to shoot him before he fled
The story of what happened on the day Ward was hit by a car actually began five days earlier, when Dingus and his wife Tiffany gave a stranger a ride home.
The woman told the couple about Ward, her boyfriend at the time, who had a warrant out for his arrest.
Ward had gone to prison in 2021 after being found guilty of sexual battery of a minor. He was released on parole in February 2025.
After violating the terms of his parole, Ward was listed as a “dangerous and possibly armed” offender at-large by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.
Ward later told police he left a halfway house in Lebanon, Ohio, out of fear for his safety because residents and staff were pressuring him to sell drugs.
On the day he was hit by a car, Ward and Hunter were driving through Butler and stopped to try and convince Ward’s girlfriend to accept a ride home.
The lawsuit states Dingus drove by and pulled his vehicle into a driveway to observe. The lawsuit claims the girlfriend agreed to accept a ride but changed her mind after seeing Dingus’s vehicle.
Dingus told police he saw the woman “half running” down the street with a man “half running” behind her.
“I get between the two and I asked (Ward’s girlfriend), ‘Is that him?’” Dingus recalled to Bellville Police last year. “She said, ‘Yeah.’”
During an interview with police last year, Ward said he was confused when “some guy” pulled up in a red car and greeted him by name. Ward said he worried Dingus was “someone from his past out to get him.”
Ward and his grandmother eventually gave up on offering his girlfriend a ride. So the two headed back to the Duke and Duchess to purchase cigarettes.
Meanwhile, Dingus contacted Winbigler and told him he had spotted Ward and continued trailing Hunter’s vehicle until the chief arrived.
The lawsuit claims that after Hunter pulled into the parking lot of the Duke and Duchess gas station, Dingus used his vehicle to block her in until Chief Winbigler arrived and did the same thing with his police cruiser.
Winbigler told Bellville Police last year that his attempts to radio for backup were unsuccessful and that he saw Ward lean forward inside the vehicle in an apparent attempt to hide and reach for something (later revealed to be a backpack).
The chief said he tried his radio again, with no luck.
Winbigler told police he approached the passenger side of Hunter’s car, told Ward there was a warrant out for his arrest and demanded he exit the vehicle.
Winbigler claimed Ward “tried talking his way out of it,” then fled towards Elm Street on foot. The chief said he reached for his taser, but wasn’t able to remove it from his holster due to an equipment malfunction.
Ward and Hunter offered a slightly different narrative.
The complaint claims the chief gave contradictory orders, telling Ward to show his hands, then exit the vehicle, then show his hands again.
Ward alleged that after he exited the vehicle, Winbigler shoved him against the car, threatened him with physical violence and looked directly at Ward while unbuttoning his holster.
“Winbigler made statements that, ‘You’re a violent criminal and I could shoot you right now’, ‘I could kill you right now and get away with it,’ or similar or same words to this effect,” the complaint stated.
Attorneys argued Ward fled from Winbigler because he was afraid the police chief was going to kill him or cause serious bodily harm. The complaint also claims Winbigler shoved Hunter to the ground while pursuing Ward.
Then, a red vehicle moved forward and struck Ward on his left side.
Ward claims Dingus intentionally ran him over
Whether Dingus intended to strike Ward is a matter of debate.
Winbigler told Bellville Police last year it seemed like the former mayor was trying to cut off Ward’s escape route through the alley, not to hit him. He added that if Dingus wanted to run Ward over, he had “every opportunity,” but instead, the mayor drove ahead of him.
Dingus told police it was Ward who ran into his vehicle and that a second collision occurred accidentally.
The former mayor said he was not trying to corral or strike Ward with his vehicle — he was trying to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.
Ward told police there was “no doubt in his mind” that Dingus was trying to run him over and he felt he was being targeted.
“This guy was trying to run me over, trying to kill me,” Ward stated, per an incident report.
The suit claims Dingus “floored” his vehicle and struck Ward twice from behind. Ward then continued to flee, motivated by terror, adrenaline and a fear for his life, he stated, until Dingus’ vehicle struck him a third time.
After that, Ward was trapped under the rear wheel well of Dingus’ car, according to the complaint. Ward’s attorneys claim the former mayor drove backward and forward while he was trapped underneath as Ward screamed and banged on the side of the car.
The suit went on to claim that Chief Winbigler knelt on Ward’s injured left leg while his left foot was trapped under Dingus’ right rear tire.
Bellville police Sgt. Gregory Tackett and officer Matthew Corwin were already en route when Ward was struck by Dingus’ car. Tackett wrote in his report that he believed Winbigler might be in need of assistance after hearing muffled radio signals.
The two officers arrived moments after Ward was hit, according to Bellville Police.
Ward’s attorneys claimed Tackett ordered Winbigler off Ward and directed Dingus to move his vehicle so Ward was no longer trapped underneath.
Initial incident reports from Tackett and Corwin did not include those details.
In his account of the events, Corwin wrote they arrived to find Ward lying on the ground on his right side with his hands handcuffed behind his back and that his left shoe was off his foot, stuck underneath the rear passenger tire of Dingus’ vehicle.
Tackett wrote Ward was partially underneath the vehicle before he and Corwin helped him to a seated position.
Butler’s acting mayor Eric Thran and village solicitor John Studenmund both declined to comment on the filing, noting the parties had not yet been served as of Wednesday afternoon.
Attempts to reach Winbigler for comment were unsuccessful.
The case has been assigned to Northern District Court Judge Patricia Gaughan. A trial date has not been set.
