By Staff Reporter |
An Arizona State University (ASU) student who inspired Tempe to create a police oversight board is facing criminal charges for attacking an officer.
Tempe police arrested ASU student Eryn Bonner in July after she refused to comply with law enforcement and charged at the officers arresting two males that she knew.
After officers twice pushed Bonner away for refusing to comply with orders to “back up,” Bonner confronted an officer who had twice pushed her away, striking him multiple times in the head and attempting to kick him away as he worked to arrest her.
Body camera footage showed the arresting officer punch Bonner once in the face to subdue her after Bonner punched him multiple times; five or six strikes and some scratching, by Tempe police’s account in court records. Benjamin Taylor, a civil rights attorney representing Bonner, disputed Bonner’s violence and has claimed to the public and city officials that Bonner was punched more than once as well as “groped” by the officer.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell declined to bring felony charges of resisting arrest and aggravated assault against Bonner.
Now, Bonner faces two misdemeanor charges in Tempe Municipal Court: disorderly conduct classified as fighting and hindering/interfering with police.
Taylor said in a statement responding to these latest charges against his client that Bonner was the victim of political prosecution. Taylor claimed to the Phoenix New Times that the city police union was pressuring the city to charge his client.
“Instead of showing accountability and transparency — accountability to their officers for their wrongdoing and transparency to the community — what they’re trying to do is cover up for the wrongdoing of their officers,” said Taylor. “It has the smellings of politics behind it when you have charges brought two months later after the county attorney decided not to bring charges. It’s very political and is basically to avoid potential civil liability and to try to cover up for their officers’ wrongdoing.”
Taylor also said that Bonner suffered “emotional trauma” in addition to physical injuries, and claimed officials were “victimizing the victim.”
According to court records, Bonner has also racked up four speeding tickets across March, April, and July. The first ticket from March also came with charges of using a cell phone while driving; the speeding portion of the charges was dropped.
Bonner’s arrest prompted the Tempe City Council to launch the Public Safety and Community Oversight Council Subcommittee, an exploratory body to discuss the creation of a police oversight board.
Taylor, a recent president of the State Bar of Arizona, has appeared before the subcommittee. Taylor addressed the subcommittee during its most recent meeting on Tuesday, claiming Bonner’s arresting officer inappropriately touched and committed excessive use of force against his client.
Shoving and punching qualify as permitted uses of force under certain circumstances to maintain control of a scene and make arrests.
Taylor also questioned the appropriateness of Tempe police appointing Sergeant Kevin Ameiss to oversee the internal affairs investigation into Bonner’s case, citing Ameiss’s 2020 suspension for his oversight of the Trevonyae Cumpian case. Ameiss was in a supervisory role for an officer who held a Black hotel worker at gunpoint while in pursuit of an armed white male suspect.
A pre-trial conference for the disorderly conduct and police interference charges is scheduled in Bonner’s case for Nov. 4, 2026.
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