Baltimore Officer avoids felony child abuse charges for assaulting a teenager

A Baltimore police officer who was caught on a viral video slapping and kicking a teenager and was then subsequently charged with second-degree felony child abuse, second-degree assault, and misconduct in office has avoided the felony child abuse charges. The original video depicts one Baltimore school police officer, Saverna Bias, looking on as officer Anthony Spence curses, hits and kicks a sixteen-year old student at REACH Partnership School.

Spence and Bias now both face the lesser misdemeanor charges of assault and misconduct in office. The Baltimore state’s attorney’s office dropped the second-degree child abuse charges against Spence, deeming them not “appropriate.”