Former Chester SC police chief, former officers file lawsuit against city, 2 officials
The former chief of the Chester Police Department and two former officers have filed a lawsuit against the city of Chester, its mayor and city administrator. The suit alleges that the former chief and officers were wronged when they were suspended by the city during a criminal investigation that ended with no charges filed, court documents show.
The lawsuit also claims that the mayor and city administrator conspired against the officers in revenge after an police-involved shooting in Chester.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by former Chief Eric Williams and former officers Capt. Travis Moore and Lt. Ricky Sanders. The lawsuit names the city of Chester, Wanda Stringfellow, and Stephanie Jackson as defendants.
Stringfellow is the mayor of Chester. Jackson is the city administrator.
Stringfellow and Jackson are named as defendants in the lawsuit, but not named in their official capacities, documents show.
The lawsuit claims negligence, breach of contract, wrongful discharge, abuse of process, malicious prosecution and wage violations against the city of Chester.
The lawsuit claims defamation, abuse of process, malicious prosecution and conspiracy against Stringfellow and Jackson.
The lawsuit
Williams, Moore and Sanders were suspended from duty by the city of Chester in January as South Carolina Law Enforcement Division officials investigated police department finances, the lawsuit states. The S.C. Attorney General’s Office said in August there was a lack of evidence and it declined to prosecute the three men after a SLED investigation.
The lawsuit states the officers were investigated because they moonlighted at an outside job at a Chester substance abuse center, which was proper and legal.
The lawsuit said the request for the investigation was, “fabricated allegations of wrongdoing.”
The lawsuit claimed they have been denied reinstatement and back pay since being cleared when the attorney general declined to prosecute.
“Defendants Stringfellow and Jackson did cause the plaintiffs to be investigated based on frivolous and fabricated allegations of wrongdoing,” the lawsuit states.
Officer-involved shooting in 2019
In November 2019, Ariane McCree was fatally shot by police outside the Chester Walmart. The S.C. Attorney General declined to prosecute the officers involved in that shooting and ruled it justified because McCree, though handcuffed behind his back, had a gun in his hands, officials said.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday claims Stringfellow, a relative of McCree, sought to have Williams, Moore and Sanders terminated after the shooting. The lawsuit claims Jackson conspired with Stringfellow.
“They did so to get revenge on plaintiffs as the administration of the police department in response to a lawful officer-involved shooting in November 2019,” the lawsuit states. “They further did so to get rid of the administration of the police department because those officials enforced the law evenly and did not yield to their self-serving predilections.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Williams, Moore and Sanders by lawyers J. Paul Porter and Lester “Gill” Bell of Columbia.
Joanie Winters, the labor and employment attorney for the city of Chester, said Tuesday she was aware the lawsuit had been filed against the city but declined comment.
Efforts to reach Stringfellow and Jackson by telephone and email at their Chester City Hall offices Tuesday were unsuccessful.
