Ex-state trooper caught kicking suspect pleads guilty

By Rick Bundrett - The (Columbia) State

COLUMBIA -- A former state trooper captured on a dashboard video repeatedly kicking a truck driver in the head after a long chase in 2006 pleaded guilty Monday to a federal civil rights charge.

John Sawyer, 34, of Latta, faces a maximum 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced, although he probably will receive a lighter penalty under federal sentencing guidelines.

Sawyer pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge David Norton in Charleston. He remains free on bail pending his sentencing hearing, which likely won't be held for at least two months.

Sawyer was one of two Highway Patrol troopers indicted last year on federal civil rights charges for using excessive force against suspects. The other trooper, Steve Garren, was acquitted by a Greenville jury in October.

"This is an important case, as the public places great trust in law enforcement to protect and serve them," U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins said Monday about Sawyer's plea.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said there is "one other matter that our office is looking into" involving the Highway Patrol, although he declined to discuss specifics.

Sawyer was the second South Carolina police officer in the past year to plead guilty to a federal excessive force charge. Former Charleston County Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Lanoue received an eight-month sentence after admitting to kicking a motorist, who was handcuffed and lying on the ground, in the head and neck after a chase in June 2007.

Sawyer is seen on a dashboard video kicking Sergio Caridi in the head area at least seven times on May 28, 2006, in Sumter County after Caridi was ordered out of a dump truck that was pursued for miles on Interstate 95.

The video shows Sawyer immediately running up to Caridi and repeatedly kicking him after the man was lying on the ground as ordered by officers.

The State newspaper last year under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act obtained more than two dozen dashboard videotapes and hundreds of pages of internal affairs reports revealing questionable behavior by some troopers.

Gov. Mark Sanford on Feb. 29 forced the resignations of Department of Public Safety director James Schweitzer and Highway Patrol commander Col. Russell Roark, contending they should have fired a white trooper heard on video making a racial slur and threatening to kill a fleeing black suspect during a 2004 Greenwood County traffic stop.

Mark Keel, who was appointed by Sanford to replace Schweitzer, said Monday that Sawyer's plea "speaks for itself."

"It's not our job to exact punishment on the side of the road," Keel said. "If (a suspect) gives up and puts his hands behind his back and lies on the ground, it's over."

State Rep. Leon Howard, D-Richland, outgoing chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said Monday that unlike Garren, who he contended "happened to get away with something he knew he was guilty of," Sawyer "at least has some type of conscience to plead guilty."

Garren was heard on a dashboard video saying he intended to hit fleeing suspect Marvin Grant on foot with his patrol car after a car chase in Greenwood County in June 2007. But Garren, who maintained his innocence, testified at his October trial that he didn't mean what he said and that the collision was unavoidable.

Columbia attorney John O'Leary, who represented Garren and Sawyer, said Monday he and his lawyer son-in-law, Wally Fayssoux of Greenville, were "ready to go to trial" in Sawyer's case. But Sawyer, a married father of three, decided to avoid a trial by pleading guilty, he said.

"It really terrified him that if he were found guilty at trial, he could get a substantially higher sentence under the guidelines," O'Leary said.

Based on his review of the guidelines, O'Leary said Sawyer, who has no prior record, will face a possible 12- to 18-month sentence without any other reductions.

Sawyer was suffering from "some diabetic problems" in the 2006 incident, which caused him to be overly agitated, O'Leary said.

Sawyer joined the Highway Patrol in 2000 after serving about four years with the Dillon Police Department, O'Leary said. He resigned from the Patrol during an internal affairs investigation into the 2006 incident that led to his federal charge, records showed.

Sawyer joined the Marion County Sheriff's Department after resigning the Patrol, but quit last January because of his diabetic problems, O'Leary said.

Caridi sued Sawyer and the Department of Public Safety in July, contending in court papers he suffered "significant physical injuries and damages" as a result of the 2006 incident.

Caridi's attorney, James McBratney of Florence, said Sawyer's plea "certainly helps our position a great deal."