COLUMBIA (Tim Smith, The Greenville News) -- Two State Highway Patrol troopers were disciplined last year for striking fleeing suspects on foot with their cars, state records show. [See the Original Videos of Other Alleged Misconduct] | [Victim Reacts to Being Chained to Car Bumper]
Videos of the incidents captured on the trooper's dashboard cameras and provided to The Greenville News under the state Freedom of Information act show one trooper later boasting of hitting the suspect, saying, "I was trying to hit him."
One of the suspects who was struck fled and has not been found since, said Sid Gaulden, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, which houses the Patrol. He said he did not believe the other suspect was injured.
One of the officers was given a three-day suspension while the other received a written reprimand. Both remain on duty, Gaulden said, and the trooper who was suspended has appealed that punishment. Advertisement
The tapes come several weeks after Gov. Mark Sanford withdrew his support for the nomination of Jim Schweitzer, the director of the Department of Public Safety, and accepted the resignation and retirement of the commander of the Patrol, Col. Russell Roark after Sanford watched a video of a trooper issuing a racial slur and threatening a black man. The trooper was handed a written reprimand in the 2004 incident and ordered to attend diversity and anger management courses. Sanford said he should have been fired.
Gaulden said the incidents debated in recent weeks are a tiny fraction of the 2.5 million traffic stops troopers have made on the state's roadways during the last four years.
"These tapes and the ones released previously are all indicative of the fact that our review and disciplinary process does work," he said. Folks may not be happy with the discipline issued. But the system works."
In one of the videos, Lance Cpl. S.C. Garren is in his Patrol car last June chasing a suspect in Greenwood County who fled from a traffic stop down a narrow road. Garren struck the suspect, flipping him over the side of his car. Garren gets out to look for the suspect in the video, who is not seen again.
Later, Garren is heard telling another officer that "I nailed the f--- out of him."
The incident was first investigated by the department's internal affairs unit and then referred to the State Law Enforcement Division, Gaulden said. SLED referred the case to a local prosecutor, who declined to pursue any criminal charges, he said.
In a letter to Garren, Schweitzer said the investigation showed Garren did not take any preventative measures and that his brake indicator did not appear until after he struck the suspect.
"Your actions constitute excessive force," Schweitzer wrote. "Morever, at the conclusion of the pursuit, you told several law enforcement officers that you tried to hit the violator. Your comments, which were recorded on tape, were improper and unprofessional."
Garren was suspended for 24 hours or three work days. In his statement he said the suspect ran into the path of his vehicle. He did not mention his statement to other officers.
In the other video, Lance Cpl. Alexander Richardson chases a suspect through a Columbia apartment complex. As adults grab at least one child out of the way of the Patrol car, Richardson weaves around the apartment buildings after the suspect, jumping the curbs, driving on the yards and hitting the suspect, who pushed away from the front of the car and kept running.
Richardson said in a statement that he did not intentionally try to "bump" the suspect with his car and did not realize until after he looked at the tape that there were people outside during his chase, according to DPS records.
"Looking back on it after the fact, I wish I would not have pursued the violator through the apartment buildings," he wrote. "I am very relieved that no one got hurt."
Lt. Col. Harry Stubblefield, who is now interim commander of the Patrol, wrote then to Richardson that his decision to pursue the supect using his vehicle "posed a safety risk to others" and constituted negliurence in following procedures, the records show.
In addition to the written reprimand, he was ordered to attend stress management classes.
Richardson also was disciplined in 1990, according to the records. for striking a man in the face who had been arrested for DUI by another trooper.
Gaulden said despite the incidents, "there's not a systemic problem" in the Patrol.
3/20/2008 11:07:30 AM
