S.C. police misconduct update
A lawsuit has been filed against the City of Myrtle Beach, Horry County Police Department, and several officers for the wrongful arrest and detention of a teenager for armed robbery, kidnapping, and burglary. The suit alleges that police detained the teenager's entire family in their home and then charged the teenager who spent 21 days in jail. The suit alleges that no evidence was found in the home and that the teenager did not match the description given by the victim in the case.
A Gaffney, S.C. police officer has been charged with felony DUI with great bodily injury after running off the road, hitting a utility pole, and injuring the passenger in his car.
A former North Charleston police who was charged with disorderly conduct and damage to property for throwing a chair through a window at a cell phone store will have his charges dismissed. In court, his attorney stated that it was really a civil matter, not criminal, that the officer was a hero, and that what actually happened is that, after having an argument with an employee, the officer just "pushed one of the chairs out of the way."
S.C. Highway Patrol trooper Justin Gambrell has been fired after being charged with use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and discharging a firearm into a dwelling. He is accused of shooting into a house in Greenville as he drove by on his way home from a bar.
A Spartanburg County Sheriff's Deputy was charged with driving too fast for conditions after running into the back of another car that had slowed for traffic.
Winnsboro narcotics officer Mike Carrell is accused of smashing motorist Ronnie Armstrong's window before searching the car and finding no drugs, making repeated harassing phone calls to Armstrong's phone, and then attempting to assault Armstrong outside of the police department after Armstrong went to make a complaint to a judge for telephone harassment. Armstrong has been arrested four times since 2002, but has never been convicted of a crime and claims that he is a target of harassment by the local police.
Williamsburg County Sheriff's deputy Bernard Jacob Ferguson has been arrested and charged with misconduct in office for beating an arrestee in the booking area at the Williamsburg County jail.
A S.C. Highway Patrol trooper in Spartanburg has been fired for unspecified "improper conduct." His home was searched by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, but no other details have been released.
Edit: I missed this last one somehow, brought to my attention by another S.C. attorney:
Scott Masterson, a former deputy with the Greenwood County Sheriff's Office, was sentenced to four years in prison last week for the thefts of tens of thousands of dollars in trailers and vehicles over a period of 10 years while he worked for the Sheriff's Office.
