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Posted by: kwflatbed

By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press Writer

Video: http://www.clipsyndicate.com/publish...er_stop?wpid=0

COLUMBIA, S.C. --
A state trooper is seen kicking a suspect in the head multiple times after a high-speed interstate chase in the latest in a string of alarming Highway Patrol videos.
In two other videos, a trooper punches a suspect several times in the face after a pursuit and a different officer appears to hit a suspect with the barrel of a shotgun during a traffic stop.
The Department of Public Safety released the videos, recorded in 2006, on Monday following media requests. They are the latest to surface showing troopers acting aggressively toward suspects.
Highway Patrol Col. Russell Roark and his boss, Public Safety Director James Schweitzer, resigned this year after a video surfaced showing a trooper use a racial epithet while chasing a black suspect.
The videos have led state and federal authorities to investigate possible civil rights violations.
Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden has said the department welcomes the investigation. The actions of the troopers in the videos are not indicative of the majority of the force, he said Monday.
Troopers "continue to do their job and they continue to do it demonstrating unmatched professionalism," he said.
In one of the videos released Monday, recorded in January 2006, Lance Cpl. E.J. Burton punches suspect Aaron Goodman several times in the face after a pursuit and stop.
"Because of our position the only thing I could do was use my hands to gain compliance," Burton wrote in a report. Burton was ordered to undergo counseling, Gaulden said.
He was later assigned to Gov. Mark Sanford's security detail. Burton was reassigned Monday at the governor's request, Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said.
In another video, Lance Cpl. John B. Sawyer kicks Sergio Caridi in the head about six times in May 2006.
Caridi led police on a 30-mile chase on Interstate 95 in a dump truck. Officers shot out several of the truck's tires, and he got out of the vehicle with his hands up and got on the ground before Sawyer kicked him in the head.
Caridi appears to try to get up off the ground, and Sawyer kicks him again. Another officer uses a stun gun on Caridi, who was then handcuffed and taken to jail, according to disciplinary records.
In a report about the incident, Sawyer wrote that the driver "would not listen to commands because he kept getting up" and that he tried to keep Caridi on the ground "by hitting his arms with my leg but he continued."
The six-year Highway Patrol member, now 33, was placed on administrative leave, officials said. He resigned several months later and now works with the Marion County Sheriff's Department, according to documents.
Another video appears to show a trooper hitting a suspect with the barrel of a shotgun during a November 2006 traffic stop.
Lance Cpl. Michael Tomson has Demetrius Jones pinned to the ground when he appears to hit him with the gun just off the screen. Jones required several stitches, and Tomson said his shotgun slipped, according to disciplinary reports.
Tomson was demoted one rank, and his pay was cut 10 percent, Gaulden said.


Wire Service

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Posted by: Inspector

A federal grand jury in Columbia has brought a civil rights violation indictment against a former South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper who was seen in a video repeatedly kicking a suspect in the head.
The grand jury has charged John B. Sawyer with violating the civil rights of Sergio Cardini, whom he was arresting during a May 2006 traffic stop on Interstate 95 in Sumter County.
Both Sawyer and Cardini are white.
The federal indictment charges that "Sawyer unncessarily struck and repeatedly kicked an arrestee, resulting in bodily injury to the man."
The incident happened May 28, 2006, after Sawyer had tried for miles to pull over Cardini, who was driving a dump truck.
The indictment also allleges that "Sawyer's actions willfully deprived the man of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer."
Video of the incident has been widely seen on the Internet. It shows a trooper approaching Cardini and kicking him several times in the head, after Cardini had laid on the ground as requested by troopers. The video was recorded on the dashboard camera of a state trooper's car.
The indictment, which was brought Thursday, marks the second time in two months that a S.C. trooper has been charged with a civil rights violation. And it comes five months after Gov. Mark Sanford forced the resignation of two top state officials, including the Highway Patrol's commander, after saying the two had been too lenient on a state trooper heard on tape using a racial slur against a fleeing black motorist in a 2004 traffic pursuit.
Sawyer faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
He resigned from the Highway Patrol later in 2006 and went to work for the Marion County (S.C.) Sheriff's Department, according to the Columbia State newspaper. The State has reported that it was told Sawyer no longer works for that sheriff's department. State officials did not file criminal charges against Sawyer after investigating the case.
Sanford in February forced the resignations of Department of Public Safety Director James Schweitzer and Highway Patrol commander Col. Russell Roark, in connection with their treatment of a trooper in the 2004 incident.
And in March, authorities began investigating the Highway Patrol after tapes emerged of a trooper using a racial epithet.
Last month, the federal government indicated Steve Garren, of Greenwood, with violating civil rights. He was charged in connection with a 2007 incident in Greenwood, in which dash-camera video appeared to show him hitting a suspect with his car.
A copy of the video in the Sawyer case can be seen at http://videos.thestate.com/vmix_host...&genre_id=2985

CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

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Posted by: PapaBear

Dang it guys, don't you know there are video cameras around? Jeez! If you are going to administer a little street justice, do so in private - no cameras, no witnesses and no visible injuries (tongue-in-cheek and fingers crossed). What the heck is this world coming to?

Gain control and use only that force necessary to accomplish the arrest, period!!!

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