A University of Akron police captain continued deciding the outcomes of sex-discrimination complaints on campus even while he himself was under investigation for making sexually explicit remarks about female officers, according to newly reported records. Darrell Claytor served as one of four Title IX hearing officers at the university, a role that let him rule on sex-based discrimination cases, even as he sat at the center of a misconduct probe sparked by a body-worn camera recording.
The recording, captured on Claytor's own body camera, ran 23 minutes and picked up Claytor and fellow officer Kevin Pierson making sexually explicit remarks about female colleagues, according to Signal Akron. University of Akron police officers discovered the footage and reported it to supervisors, though it sat undiscovered for four weeks before that happened. Claytor had worked for the University of Akron Police Department for 12 years, following 13 years with the City of Akron Police Department, and he graduated from the University of Akron School of Law in December 2021 while supervising UAPD's midnight shift, per the University of Akron.
A Captain Investigating Himself, In Effect
Once the recording surfaced, a female officer filed a Title IX complaint against Claytor and asked that he be removed from hiring committees and from his post as a Title IX hearing officer, the outlet's reporting shows. Claytor responded by filing his own Title IX complaint against the officer who had reported the recording, claiming she or someone supporting her was spreading word of the video to damage his reputation. He ultimately lost that complaint.
Despite the pending investigation into his own conduct, Mike Strong — who simultaneously served as UA's Dean of Students and interim Title IX coordinator — kept assigning Title IX cases to Claytor, even appointing him to oversee four new cases during that window. The same report says Claytor served as hearing officer in at least five Title IX cases in 2024 alone. Federal Title IX rules, updated in 2020 and codified at 34 C.F.R. § 106.45, require decision-makers to be free of bias or conflicts of interest — a standard that, according to Garland Independent School District, gives students formal legal grounds to appeal rulings issued under an unaddressed conflict.
Kimberly Pacelli said that university law enforcement officers serving as Title IX decision-makers is virtually unheard of, and that allowing a hearing officer under his own sex-discrimination investigation to issue rulings creates significant potential for a conflict of interest. She also warned that direct law enforcement involvement in Title IX proceedings can chill survivors from participating at all.
What the Recording Actually Showed
Claytor described the recording as a private conversation between two friends — guy talk, in his words — and said the UAPD culture five to ten years ago laughed at various things, including sexuality. Within the department, he had reportedly earned the nickname “50 Shades of Clay” and was known for telling stories about sexual encounters with women at work, according to the same reporting. Internal UAPD records reviewed by the outlet also showed that a lieutenant had previously tried to block Claytor from working in student residential dormitories specifically because of those stories.
An internal review by Erin Butcher found that Claytor had engaged in explicit sexual degradation of female subordinates, and Butcher recommended he be fired. Claytor ultimately resigned from UAPD in May 2026 in lieu of termination, though he told investigators he accepted responsibility for his comments. Attorney Peter Pattakos, however, argued that the recording captured private locker-room talk that did not amount to a terminable offense, and said Claytor was in fact terminated — a characterization that conflicts with the resignation-in-lieu-of-termination framing described elsewhere in the reporting.
Light Discipline, Then a Glowing Reference
Before Claytor's departure, UAPD Assistant Chief Todd Hough recommended he face nothing more than a two-hour workplace sensitivity training session over the recording. Hough later went further, writing in a reference letter that he wholeheartedly endorsed Claytor as an asset to any law enforcement agency — a recommendation that ended up in the hiring materials Claytor submitted to municipal departments. UAPD said in a statement that it reviews and addresses concerns regarding inappropriate language and conduct and is committed to professionalism, accountability and respect.
Kevin Pierson, the officer recorded alongside Claytor, left UAPD in 2025, becoming the first of the two to depart, and was hired as captain — the department's second-highest rank — at the Uniontown Police Department in Lake Township, Stark County, where he has overseen administrative reviews. He also reportedly threatened to sue the female officer who had discovered the video. Claytor later recommended Pierson for that captain role.
A New Badge in Lake Township
Uniontown Police Chief Michael Batchick wrote to the Lake Township Board of Trustees on July 9, 2026, recommending Claytor for full-time employment with his department. James Gilbride was listed as Claytor's personal reference for the Uniontown application, and Claytor disclosed his Title IX case to Uniontown during the hiring process. The Board of Trustees, which holds final statutory voting authority over all police hires in the township, unanimously voted to hire him, and Claytor is now serving as a Uniontown police officer.
Batchick said the conversation captured on the recording demonstrated poor judgment but did not, in his assessment, reflect a pattern of misconduct or poor character. Uniontown's leadership has weighed in on personnel matters before: in April 2026, Batchick and Pierson reviewed an internal investigation into a traffic stop and recommended terminating a probationary officer after investigators determined the stop lacked probable cause, prompting an immediate vote by the Lake Township Trustees, according to the Canton Repository.
Cleaning House on Title IX Oversight
The University of Akron has since restructured its Title IX office. Jennifer Berg was appointed as the university's full-time Title IX Coordinator in early 2026, taking over from Strong, who had juggled the coordinator role alongside his job as Dean of Students while continuing to assign cases to Claytor. Federal regulations under 34 C.F.R. § 106.45(b)(7)(i) require universities to keep investigator and decision-maker roles separate specifically to prevent this kind of overlap, according to School & College Legal Services of California.
Title IX, passed in 1972, prohibits gender discrimination at federally funded educational institutions, and UA's own procedures require a grievance process, formal hearing and ruling, and an appeal process for sex-discrimination complaints. It remains an open question whether any students or staff whose cases Claytor decided during the period he was himself under investigation will now move to challenge those rulings on the basis of the conflict of interest.
