South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

Former Kershaw County deputy Oddie Tribble was fired August 5th after beating a handcuffed man with a baton until his leg was broken, on video (below). At least two other deputies stood by and watched as Tribble repeatedly beat the man, seemingly undisturbed by the violence.

Police get much more than the presumption of innocence when they are accused of committing a crime - they get the red carpet rolled out for them. More often than not they are not charged with a crime (see this post about a Pensacola officer who tased and ran over a teenager, killing him, and the comments to the post). When they are charged they are given every benefit of the doubt, and more often than not juries will acquit them.

In the CNN story that I linked to, they do not identify the deputy in the video - Oddie Tribble - he is only referred to as "the deputy." But the man who was beaten, Charles Shelley, was identified. In a press conference, our SLED chief Reggie Lloyd said:

"We don't think it is typical behavior in South Carolina, but it's disturbing behavior," Lloyd said. He added that standard police training does not include the method shown in the video.

"You probably shouldn't be hitting anybody with a ... baton while they're handcuffed."

According to WMBF, a drug bust today in Myrtle Beach netted 8 kilos of black tar heroin, 1 and a half kilos of powder heroin, and a quarter of a kilo of cocaine. The DEA and Horry County narcotics officers managed to make the bust, which was the culmination of a year-long investigation, when no-one was home, and no arrests were made.

The FBI is upset that Wikipedia included it's seal on its online encyclopedia entry:

(CNN) -- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has threatened Wikipedia with legal action if the online encyclopedia doesn't remove the FBI's seal from its site.

The seal is featured in an encyclopedia entry about the FBI.

Wikipedia isn't backing down, however. The online encyclopedia -- which is run by a nonprofit group and is edited by the public -- sent a chiding letter to the FBI, explaining why, in its view, the FBI is off its legal rocker.

It makes sense for an online encyclopedia to include an agency's official seal along with the other information about the agency. In case anyone was wondering what this top secret government seal looks like:

H/T Popehat, Bennett, Greenfield, Gideon, Gamso, Coleman, and Windypundit .

An Horry County magistrate in Aynor has been suspended from office pending investigation of a complaint that was received by the SC Office of Disciplinary Counsel. I don't know why he was suspended or what the complaint was, or any other details about the situation.

Via Simple Justice and Jonathan Turley, in October last year, Officer Jerald Ard of the Pensacola police department spotted a black teen, Victor Steen, riding his bicycle at a vacant construction site, then chased him down in his police cruiser, driving into oncoming traffic, tazes the teen from his car window, and then runs over him with his car, killing him. According to the narration at liveleak.com, which has both videos and better sound quality, video from a second responding patrol car may have caught Ard planting a 9mm on the teen's body as it lay underneath his patrol car.

Pensacola Police Department’s internal investigation found that the officer violated department policy by driving into oncoming traffic and discharging his taser from the car window, and noted that the subject could have sustained serious injuries if he had fallen from his bicycle during the chase (good thing that Victor did not fall from his bike before being run over by the police car). Officer Ard was suspended for 80 hours without pay as discipline for killing Victor Steen. He was not charged with any crime.

From the Consumer Attorneys of California: