Created: 3/6/2008 12:26:13 PM 
By Tim Smith Capital Bureau, Greenville Online
COLUMBIA (Greenville Online)-- Months before the South Carolina Senate confirmed Jim Schweitzer in 2004 as the new director of the Department of Public Safety, Sen. Jake Knotts of Lexington said he showed him a videotape of Highway Patrol troopers harassing local narcotics agents on a stakeout because the troopers were upset the local officers were in their territory.
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The troopers, in an unmarked SUV, parked near the local agents and then did what they could to discourage the agents from staying, Knotts said, including shining their lights on the highway, shouting and singing over their vehicle's loudspeaker and turning on their blue lights. And when the agents finally pulled out onto the highway in pursuit of the car they were waiting on, the troopers blocked them, Knotts said.
He said Schweitzer told him that he couldn't believe what he was seeing when watching the tape after Knotts told him that the commander of the patrol, Russell Roark, didn't always hand out the necessary punishment when his officers misbehaved.
Three months ago, Knotts said, he warned Schweitzer again, telling him he would have problems with his confirmation for a second term if he didn't do something about Roark. Advertisement
On Friday, Roark and Schweitzer submitted their resignations, after Gov. Mark Sanford watched with dismay another videotape dated later in 2004 of a trooper shouting a racial slur and threatening to kill a black man he was chasing from the scene of a traffic stop in Greenwood County.
The trooper was given a written reprimand and ordered to counseling by Schweitzer after receiving a recommendation from Roark. Sanford told reporters Friday that the trooper should have been fired.
Schweitzer and Roark couldn't be reached Wednesday to comment.
On Wednesday, Knotts, a frequent Sanford critic, and Sen. Kay Patterson, a Columbia Democrat and a member of the Legislative Black Caucus that brought the Greenwood video to Sanford's attention, took to the Senate floor to praise Sanford for his actions.
Patterson said he wasn't surprised that Schweitzer, a former FBI agent, hadn't acted more severely against the trooper because of the racial background of the FBI. He said he recalled FBI agents not taking any action when blacks were being harassed or attacked by whites in the civil rights era. He also remembered former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declaring no blacks would be hired by the FBI.
"I'm happy and proud my governor stood up," he said.
Knotts talked of the January 2004 videotape on the floor of the Senate and said he had given a copy to Sanford's office four days before Roark and Schweitzer resigned.
Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Sanford, said a senior staffer watched the video but what was happening on the tape was too difficult to discern, especially in comparison to the Greenwood County video of the trooper issuing the racial slur.
Sid Gaulden, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said Schweitzer wasn't in Wednesday and Roark was no longer working in the office, having been replaced by a former lieutenant colonel of the patrol.
He said the leader of the trooper team that Knotts complained about was eventually demoted because of the incident and transferred. He said the trooper later sued the state over his punishment. Gaulden said the trooper died several years and he didn't know the outcome of the suit.
Knotts on Wednesday played the tape for The Greenville News. The tape begins with a tirade from troopers upset over the local agents being in their territory, then shifts to the troopers' SUV parking near the agents, with its lights shining on the highway.
Eventually, the troopers begin using their loudspeaker, including singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The tape also shows the SUV turning on its police lights and then blocking the local agents' vehicle as they tried to pursue a car.
Knotts said he may release a copy of the videotape later to The Greenville News.
According to Knotts, a supervisor of the narcotics team took the tape to Roark, who he said gave the troopers a written reprimand but allowed them to continue working in Lexington County.
Knotts said he then complained to Roark, who he said seemed unconcerned. So Knotts said he took the tape to Schweitzer's predecessor, Boykin Rose, who then took action against the troopers, including moving them out of the county.
He said he believes Schweitzer is a good man but relied too much on Roark.
About three months ago, Knotts said, he gave Schweitzer some advice.
"I told him, 'You have some serious problems,'" Knotts said. "I told him that Roark was going to take him down. I said, 'You need to get rid of Roark and straighten up that thing. If you don't, you're not going to get confirmed.'"
