MANSFIELD — The name of Calvin Caldwell came up before, during and after a City Council meeting on Tuesday evening.
The 68-year-old Caldwell was arrested Thursday on eight federal charges by FBI agents from Cleveland, capping a seven-year drug trafficking investigation.
A Mansfield resident, Caldwell was one of 16 people charged in the alleged drug ring that reportedly operated out of the New Millennium Car Wash he owns at the corner of West Fourth and Bowman streets.
Rev. Jameelah O’Neal, pastor of the Greater Mitchell Chapel AMEC Church at 182 S. Adams St., spoke about Caldwell during the public participation portion of the City Council meeting.
But she wasn’t there to talk about the arrest.
She asked city leaders to respond to allegations that Caldwell, a Black man, was brutalized by Mansfield police during a car stop in the early morning hours of May 20 — nearly three weeks before his arrest by the FBI.
The incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. near the intersection of West Fifth and North Main streets. The vehicle was stopped, according to police, because it had gone too far into a previous intersection before stopping and also because its rear license plate light was out.
Caldwell was a passenger in the vehicle during the stop, which ended with him fighting with officer Joshua Adamescu during a dispute over Caldwell’s driver’s license. Taken to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital afterward for minor injuries, Caldwell was never charged from the incident.
During the car stop, according to police reports, Caldwell showed “nervous indicators,” which included breathing very heavily, not looking at the officer and being very confrontational from the start.”
After officers received permission from the driver to search the vehicle, Adamescu said he asked Caldwell for his identification. He said Caldwell produced his wallet, but held it away from him.
Adamescue asked Caldwell to either read the driver’s license number or hand the officer the ID. He said Caldwell pulled his ID out, but then again held it away.
“As this officer attempted to grab his ID, he pulled it away and then very aggressively placed the ID in front of this officer’s face. As this officer grabbed the ID, (Caldwell) balled his fist up and lunged toward this officer,” according to the report.
A fight ensued between the two men as Adamescu tried to remove Caldwell from the vehicle, which included the officer striking the man with a closed fist.
‘I think what pains me the most is silence from our city’s leadership’
O’Neal told city leaders she attended the City Council meeting, “just to express, sorrow, as well as try to understand what is going on here in Mansfield.”
“This has deeply shaken myself, as well as other members, especially when there are additional incidents coming forward as far as police brutality that is happening here in Mansfield.
“I think what pains me the most is the silence from our city’s leadership. I’ve been diligently watching the news and still I have not heard any type of comment or response from the mayor,” said O’Neal, who told council she lives in Cleveland.
The minister told Mayor Jodie Perry she respects her “100 percent” and also other local leaders.
“I am just asking that we receive some type of response, some type of public comment, something that says that the community as a whole (that) government officials do not agree with, nor stand by any type of form of police brutality.
“We’re not saying, ‘Hey, choose sides.’ We’re just saying choose a side of right which says, ‘We don’t agree with police brutality,'” O’Neal said.
“We all don’t know the full situation at hand. But I think that a statement or a comment is warranted. I can’t see where it would hurt,” O’Neal said.
(Below is a video from the body-worn camera used by Mansfield police officer Joshua Adamescu during a car stop involving a vehicle passenger, Calvin Caldwell, of May 20. Warning: The video contains profanity.)
Mayor says investigative process must play out
Near the end of the council meeting, Perry addressed O’Neal’s comments.
“We will be making more comments on things. But part of why we haven’t said anything yet is certainly to let the process play out. We do have a very stringent internal investigation process.
“When complaints are made from the public, we go through a multistep process,” the mayor said.
Perry said she and others from the city meet with the local NAACP and the Mansfield Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.
“We’re setting up quarterly meetings and I certainly would welcome other members of the community to join those. I’m always happy to visit groups. We’re happy to go out to public town halls.
“We talked about that with them because I think that the last thing you want to do is be building those relationships in a moment of crisis. I see a lot of familiar faces in the audience that I have built relationships with, but certainly, there’s always room for improvement and there’s always room for us to do more,” the mayor said.
“When legal things get involved, you just really can’t (comment publicly). I certainly understand that that’s not always a satisfactory answer, but it is the truth. We did talk at a higher level,” she said.
The mayor, who took office in January 2024, said MPD officers undergo training in de-escalation and also implicit bias training.
“We’ve tracked and looked at, particularly after this, the resistance-to-arrest (incidents). We always have reports whenever there is a resistance to arrest. Those numbers have actually gone down, even though our total arrest counts have gone up in the last five years.
“We do want to put some of that data out just to let people know the steps that we’re taking,” the mayor said.
“We try to let things run through their course. I think that we’ll have more we can share in the future. But certainly, Pastor O’Neal, I’d be more than happy to sit down with you and any of your congregants if they have concerns.
“I didn’t want to just leave this council meeting and (have) you feeling like, ‘Wow, I spoke on this really serious issue and the mayor just blew me off,’ because that’s certainly not my intention,” Perry said.
In speaking with media after the meeting, the mayor was asked the status of the internal investigation into the car stop.
“I believe that the (internal department) investigation has been concluded and it’s waiting to come up to the administration,” she said.
The case could end up before the newly reconstituted Mansfield Police Review and Community-Police Relations Commission. The commission is a volunteer citizen oversight body, comprising seven members who review completed internal police investigations.
85-page federal indictment spells out charges against Caldwell, 15 others
An 85-page indictment filed July 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio said a grand jury charged 16 people, including Caldwell, that had nothing to do with the May 20 car stop.
Caldwell is scheduled for a detention hearing in federal court in Cleveland on Thursday at 10 a.m. In custody since his arrest, the FBI alleges Caldwell was the primary defendant in the case.
The FBI alleges Caldwell and other co-conspirators obtained large quantities of drugs — including cocaine, crack and oxycodone — from suppliers in Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo. They sold those drugs in and around Mansfield, according to the indictment.
The allegations are that the defendants engaged in the illegal effort from June 2019 to July 2026.
The indictment alleges the suspects were aware of law enforcement investigation efforts.
“On numerous occasions, when a subordinate dealer was stopped by local law enforcement for traffic violations, Caldwell would call to complain about harassment of (his) employees, whom he claimed worked for the New Millinium Car Wash,” the indictment said.
The indictment alleges Caldwell and others used cell phones to call and text regarding their drug trafficking activity. The indictment includes messages to and from the various defendants.
“To reduce the risk of being detected by law enforcement, Caldwell and co-conspirators would frequently use coded language, slang terms or street terminology to obscure the true nature of their activities,” the indictment states.
The indictment also indicates that multiple undercover drug buys were made from Caldwell and his co-conspirators during the investigation, using confidential informants.
The indictment, which alleges Caldwell was previously convicted in state and federal court on felony drug charges, claims the suspect was a felon in possession of ammunition and also possessed a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
The indictment seeks enhanced penalties in the new case based on Caldwell’s prior federal drug conviction.
The FBI, in the indictment, hopes to seize the New Millinium Car Wash property as part of its case, along with guns and cash seized from defendants during search warrants related to the case.
