Jay Koon challenged by property owner in feud over roads project …
Published
2 months ago
on
A Lexington County, South
Carolina resident who is infuriated
with the S.C. Department of
Transportation (SCDOT)
over a controversial road project
now has his sights set on county
sheriff
Jay Koon.
Craig Bowers has
taken out billboards claiming Koon
is denying his family “law
enforcement protection and
services.”
According to Bowers, he called
9-1-1 on Friday, May 3, 2019 to
report a pair of trespassers on his
property – which is located next to
the Leaphart Road bridge over
Interstate 26 near West Columbia,
S.C.
Bowers said Lexington did not
dispatch deputies to respond to his
call for more than two hours.
“The trespassers were
subcontractors removing silt
barriers for the SCDOT Leaphart Road
bridge replacement project,” Bowers
wrote in an email to Lexington
County attorney Jeff
Anderson, a copy of which
was obtained by this news outlet.
Wait … the trespassers were
road workers? Yes … according
to Bowers, he placed them on
trespass notice two days earlier, on
May 1, 2019.
“My conversation placing the
subcontractor on trespass notice was
recorded as was the trespassing,”
Bowers continued in his email. “They
even admitted to the responding
deputy that they trespassed, but the
deputy flatly refused to do anything
not even (file) a report. He claimed
a trespass notice had to be done by
certified mail or in the presence of
law enforcement.”
“It was clear this deputy was not
going to help us one bit with a
request for simple law enforcement,”
Bowers added.
What is the origin of this
dispute?
According to his email, Bowers is
upset because the SCDOT bridge
project has allegedly infringed upon
his private property rights and
imposed hardships upon his special
needs child.
“Our home and our neighbors’
homes were being damaged by
vibration caused by a vibrating drum
roller being operated in close
proximity to our homes; the noise
level in our yard was over 100
decibels; there was dust everywhere
coating everything we own; and the
smell of sulfur from the off road
diesel fuel was ridiculous,” he
wrote.
Bowers is obviously not messing
around when it comes to obtaining
satisfaction on this matter, either.
Here is an excerpt from his email
to Anderson …
If the Sheriff’s Department does not
want to address each of these
issues, then we will retain a civil
rights attorney to address the
ongoing denial of law enforcement
services. I have also purchased and
parked several web domains … for
websites that will expose everything
and I do mean absolutely everything
that has happened to us and our
neighbors. I’m currently
working on securing funding to lease
roadside billboards starting in
Myrtle Beach, Charleston and
Greenville to promote this website
with the intent of informing as many
people as we can about what was
allowed to happen in Lexington
County.
Anderson responded with an email
of his own, informing Bowers his
office was “not familiar with the
situation and issues” related to his
complaint, but that he would forward
the email to the general counsel for
the sheriff’s office “so that they
will be aware of your concerns.”
This message did not placate
Bowers, who curtly informed Anderson
his attorney had already sent
multiple letters to Koon – who
“never responded.”
“Sheriff Koon’s silence makes one
wonder who he is protecting and
serving because it certainly is not
us or our neighbors,” Bowers wrote.
(Click to view)
(Via: Provided)
Bowers’ billboards immediately
began drawing attention in Lexington
County, but he told us late
Wednesday he agreed to temporarily
suspend his contract with
Grace Outdoor
after Koon called the agency in the
aftermath of a recent murder-suicide
in the area.
“Koon called Grace outdoor today
asking them to take down my message
using the murder suicide as a
reason,” Bowers told us. “When
contacted by Grace Outdoor, I agreed
to a pause in the contract for a few
days.”
The billboards will be back up in
a few days, though, he said.
Our view? We certainly understand
Bowers’ frustration. Who
wouldn’t? Intrusions on one’s
private property are always vexing,
and dealing with a sustained
nuisance that is causing problems
for one’s child certainly has to be
maddening. It seems clear to us
Bowers has a legitimate protest with
SCDOT, and we hope this article –
like
stories we have written in the past
related to bad behavior by the
agency – will draw attention to it.
As for the allegations against
Kuhn, we are less inclined to give
them as much credence … believing
this to be a matter for the courts,
not the cops.
Having said that, we support
Bowers’ right to shout his views
from the rooftops … or in this case,
the roadside. Hell, we may even get
our ad agency to send him a rate
kit!
By
Emery Glover|June 22,
2019 at 12:05 PM EDT - Updated June 22 at 12:05 PM
LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - A Lexington County deputy was
arrested and charged with driving under the influence Friday
night.
Officials said Robert Scott Smith, 57, was driving his
personal vehicle on Interstate 26 when he made contact with
another vehicle as he tried to change lanes near mile marker 97
(Highway 176) in Irmo. No one was injured during the incident.
Troopers with the South Carolina Highway Patrol administered
a field sobriety test to Smith. The deputy failed the test and
refused to take a Breathalyzer test.
Smith, who was off duty at the time of the incident, was
taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center after his arrest.
He has been placed on paid administrative leave.
Smith has been a deputy in Lexington County since 1982.
An investigation into about $50 worth of stolen items from a Walmart led to
the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department being ordered to pay a former suspect
$200,000.
A jury ruled that a former Lexington County deputy violated the civil rights
of Sabrina Jackson after the officer charged her with a crime she didn’t commit.
The verdict ends a five-year legal process that began with
video footage of a woman allegedly stealing from Walmart in Red Bank.
“We think Lexington is a very fair minded county and that the good people of
Lexington will stand up to their own police force when they are shown facts that
their own police did not act according to the law,” said Robert Phillips,
Jackson’s attorney.
In 2014, a Walmart manager contacted the Lexington County Sheriff’s
Department about a black woman who left the store without paying for items,
according to Jackson’s lawsuit. Deputy Darren Wiseman, who was named the 2014
community officer of the year, investigated the incident and spoke with a woman
who supposedly knew the shoplifter.
The woman told Wiseman her friend “Sabrina Jackson” was the person with the
stolen merchandise. Wiseman looked up records for a black Sabrina Jackson who
lived in Lexington and charged her with shoplifting, the suit claimed. Wiseman
had the wrong person though. Months after Jackson went through jail booking,
hiring a lawyer and emotional distress, the charges against her were dropped.
Jackson sued Wiseman, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and Walmart
in 2016.
After a trial last week, presided over by Judge Alison Renee Lee, a jury
found that Wiseman and the department wrongfully arrested and charged Jackson.
Jurors awarded Jackson $200,000 in damages.
“We were very appreciative of the verdict,” said Jake Moore, a Lexington
lawyer and co-counsel for Jackson. “The judge gave us a good trial. ... I
thought the jury did the right thing.”
In Jackson’s suit, her lawyers wrote Jackson “in no way could be described as
fat.” But a police incident report described the shoplifter as being around 5
feet, 9 inches tall and between 200 and 250 pounds. The DMV record obtained by
Wiseman listed Jackson as 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighing 160 pounds, court
exhibits showed. The contradicting descriptions were presented in court as
evidence that Wiseman should have known he was arresting the wrong person.
The jury heard testimony from 10 witnesses during the trial, including
Wiseman and Jackson’s parents.
“The jury found unequivocally that deputy Wiseman arrested a person without
probable cause,” Phillips said. “Probable cause does not convict you. It gives
an officer a constitutional right to arrest you to take you to trial. It’s a
very low standard and we proved he didn’t even have that.”
The suit claimed that Wiseman arrested Jackson because she was “simply
black...in Lexington” and that he made up evidence. The jury, however, did not
find that Wiseman falsified a case against Jackson, and he had no racial bias in
his arrest, according to court records. Wiseman was not “willful, wanton, or
reckless” in his arrest, the jury found.
“The jury decided the shoplifting investigation, that was based upon the
testimony of two witnesses, did not meet the probable cause standard,” said Dave
DeMasters, an attorney for Wiseman and the department. “Everyone who is charged
with a crime enjoys the presumption of innocence, which is why the shoplifting
charge against Mrs. Jackson was immediately dropped by Deputy Wiseman in 2014
when the complaining witness did not appear to testify for the criminal case. We
wish Mrs. Jackson the very best and hope that the decision puts the matter to
rest for everyone involved.”
The sheriff’s department and Wiseman may appeal the jury’s decision.
Before the trial, Walmart settled with Jackson for an undisclosed amount,
according to court records.
“Our associate acted reasonably and in good faith at all times. We are
pleased to have resolved this matter with no admission of liability,” Walmart
spokesperson LeMia Jenkins said.
Wiseman and the sheriff’s department are defendants in another suit that
makes similar allegations to Jackson’s. In the case, a Richland County deputy,
who served with Wisemen in the military, claims the Lexington cop wrongfully
arrested him in a domestic dispute to prove he wasn’t biased for law enforcement
officers. The Richland deputy
was found not guilty. That lawsuit was moved to federal court.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department named deputy Darren Wiseman the
community service officer of the year for 2014.
Lewis McCarty, who was sheriff at the time,
recognized Wiseman, in part, for working with Walmart in Red Bank to curb
shoplifting “by seeking enhanced punishments for repeat offenders,” a department
statement said.
Wiseman is scheduled to be in court later this month because of one 2014
shoplifting arrest connected to the Walmart. But this time, he will be the
defendant, accused in a civil lawsuit of arresting the wrong person.
It’s one of two lawsuits filed against Wiseman and the Lexington County
Sheriff’s Department claiming that he lied to make an arrest. In the other case,
he’s accused of falsely charging a Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy with
domestic violence.
Wiseman, his lawyers and lawyers for the sheriff’s department did not respond
to The State.
Wiseman resigned in February from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department
“in very good standing,” Captain Adam Myrick said, adding that the former deputy
was not asked to leave.
Myrick said the department would not answer questions about Wiseman or the
two cases. But in court filings, the department denied all the allegation
against it in both cases.
The department admits only that at all times Defendant Wiseman was acting in
the course and scope of his employment, lawyers wrote in answer to the claims
against the agency.
THE TWO SABRINA JACKSONS
Sabrina Jackson “in no way could be described as fat,” her suit against
Wiseman said.
Jackson’s legal nightmare began on April 23, 2014, when Ivan Dennis, an
employee of the Red Bank Walmart in charge of reducing theft, saw a “‘black
female’” place items in a cart and walk out without paying, the lawsuit said.
Dennis got the make, model and license plate number of the vehicle that carried
the robber away. He passed that information along to Wiseman a few days later
along with security footage of the thief.
Wiseman tracked the plate number to a woman who told the deputy that her
friend Sabrina Jackson was with her that day at Walmart. Wiseman showed the
woman the screenshot of the alleged thief and she said she recognized her friend
in the picture. She then described her friend as “‘fat,’” a description Wiseman
put in his notes, the suit said. The woman also told Wiseman that her friend was
moving or already had moved to Charlotte.
The lawsuit doesn’t indicate whether the woman told Wiseman how to contact
Jackson.
With a name, Wiseman pulled up a state Department of Motor Vehicle record for
a Sabrina Jackson “who was simply black and lived in Lexington County,” the suit
said. The record provided him with a photo and an address to a home on Edinfield
Court near Gaston.
On May 1, Wiseman met back up with Dennis from Walmart, who said the DMV
photo was of the woman he saw shoplifting. But the lawsuit claims that “they
look nothing like each other.”
The deputy and the Walmart employee also had the security footage to compare
with the picture, and the lawsuit claims the two images show different women.
The lawsuit doesn’t provide a detailed description of Jackson, though it says
she “in no way could be described as fat.”
Lexington County deputies at Red Bank’s Walmart
Provided Photo
On June 17, Wiseman swore before a magistrate judge that
Sabrina Jackson who lived on Edinfield Court shoplifted at the Red Bank Walmart.
He told the judge that a friend of Jackson’s identified her in the security
camera shot. But the deputy never mentioned to the judge that the woman
described her friend as fat, contradicting the image in the DMV photo, according
to the lawsuit. Nor did he tell the judge that the woman never said her friend
lived on Edinfield Court.
“Two half-truths make a whole lie,” wrote Robert
Phillips, the plaintiff’s lawyer, in the summons and complaint. “Wiseman told
the magistrate judge a lie.”
Based on that reported lie, an arrest warrant was issued
for the wrong Sabrina Jackson, the lawsuit claims. After having a deputy show up
at her house and threaten a physical arrest, Jackson turned herself in “with no
choice (but) to comply” on June 25, the complaint said. She was cuffed, booked,
and left in a jail cell for over 12 hours before a judge let her out on bond.
When Jackson’s defense attorney contacted Wiseman, he
began the cover-up, the suit claimed. Wiseman told Jackson’s defense attorney
that the charges were being dropped because “the two witnesses were not coming
to court,” the complaint said.
“This was an absolute lie,” Phillips wrote in the
complaint. Wiseman “knew it was an absolute lie.”
The suit also claimed that Wiseman went back into the
investigation file and added untrue information. Wiseman wrote that the woman
who gave him the name Sabrina Jackson said her friend lived on Edinfield Court,
the suit said.
The suit claimed that the woman never told Wiseman
anything about Edinfield Court, that the woman “does not know where Edinfield
Court is located nor has she ever even heard of such a location.”
The lawsuit lists Walmart as a defendant, but in its
response, the company denied any wrongdoing.
“We want all of our customers to have a pleasant
experience in our stores,” Walmart spokesperson LeMia Jenkins said. “We dispute
the plaintiffs’ claims and will continue to defend the company.”
The cost of the stolen merchandise that began the series
of events was $50.
THE TWO DEPUTIES
William Carlson’s former wife said she was “‘going to
ruin his career in law enforcement,’” his suit against Wiseman and the Lexington
sheriff’s department alleged.
That might have happened after a call to 911 on Dec. 7,
2016.
Carlson had worked for a decade as a cop. He was a
highway trooper from 2006 to 2010, and joined the Richland County Sheriff’s
Department in 2011. Carlson was working as a deputy when
his wife called Lexington police during what the suit described as a “mere
verbal altercation.” A dispatcher sent Wiseman to check on the domestic dispute.
When Wiseman showed up, a problem arose, the suit showed.
Carlson and Wiseman knew each other and had served in the military together.
“At this point what should have happened was for
[Wiseman] to have called in for someone else to investigate the alleged
incident,” Phillips wrote in the complaint. “Rather than take the appropriate
action and call in for a replacement, Defendant Wiseman decided to continue with
the investigation…”
William Carlson Provided photo
Wiseman wrote in a police report that he saw redness on
the woman’s cheek and early stages of bruising near her chin, according to the
suit. He noted that marks on her neck looked like she’d been in a headlock. He
took pictures of the injuries.
“However, the pictures showed absolutely no injuries…”
Phillips wrote. Wiseman arrested Carlson “without sufficient evidence” and
“absolutely no probable cause.” He arrested the fellow officer to “‘prove he was
not biased.’”
Wiseman went before a judge to obtain an arrest warrant
on a third-degree domestic violence charge against Carlson. The deputy didn’t
tell the judge about the photos — which the judge would have requested to see if
the judge knew they existed — because Wiseman knew the injuries didn’t exist,
the suit alleged.
Because of the charge, Carlson immediately lost his job
as a Richland County Sheriff’s deputy.
“He suffered an extreme amount of public humiliation and
shame,” the suit said. The arrest and fallout embarrassed him before friends and
co-workers and damaged his reputation.
“He simply did not commit the crime,” the suit said.
After the acquittal, the Richland County Sheriff’s
Department’s Internal Affairs reviewed Carlson’s case. His work history,
performance and evaluations were looked at and his supervisors were spoken to.
He was hired Carlson back as deputy in July 2017.
“We felt he was worthy of coming back,” Sheriff Leon Lott
said. “He was found innocent. There was no reason not to hire him back. He was a
good deputy when he worked here.”
Read more here:
https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article229957604.html#storylink=cpy
In the latest front in the
nationwide fight against debtors' prisons, on June 1, 2017, the American
Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging the illegal arrest
and incarceration of poor people in Lexington County, South Carolina,
without a hearing or representation by counsel. Victims can avoid jail only
if they pay the entire amount of outstanding court fines and fees up front
and in full. Indigent people who are unable to pay are incarcerated for
weeks to months without ever seeing a judge, having a court hearing, or
receiving help from a lawyer. The result is one of the most draconian
debtors’ prisons uncovered by the ACLU since 2010.
In Lexington County, hundreds, if not
more than a thousand, impoverished people each year are locked up simply
because they cannot afford to pay fines in traffic and misdemeanor cases in
the County’s magistrate courts. Though poverty has increased in Lexington
County since 2012—with poverty rates for Black and Latino residents at more
than double the rate for white residents–the County continues to rely on
revenue from fines and fees in magistrate court cases. The system now issues
more than a thousand warrants each year to order the arrest and immediate
incarceration of people who owe court fines and fees unless they pay the
full amount of their debts before being booked in jail.
The result is a two-tiered system of justice. People
who can afford to pay buy their freedom, while poor people are locked away
in the Lexington County Detention Center, causing their families to suffer,
their jobs to disappear, and their chances of escaping poverty to become
even more remote. These debtors’ prison practices trap poor people,
particularly people of color, in a complicated and expensive criminal
justice maze with too many ways in and no realistic ways out.
Brown and Cayeshia Johnson are victims of this
unlawful system.
Brown had made five regular payments toward traffic
fines and fees to the Irmo Magistrate Court when she fell behind. Sheriff’s
deputies came to her home on a Saturday morning and arrested her in front of
her children on a warrant charging her with nonpayment of court fines and
fees. Brown was incarcerated for 57 days because she could not afford to pay
the entire $1,907.63 that she owed. At no point was Brown provided a court
hearing on her ability to pay, informed of her right to request counsel, or
appointed counsel to help defend against incarceration. In jail, Ms. Brown
was separated her from her children, including her 13-year-old son, and lost
her job.
Johnson was arrested at a traffic stop and jailed for
55 days because she couldn’t pay $1,287.50 in fines and fees stemming from a
minor car accident roughly six months earlier. Despite her efforts to get a
court date that she could attend and a payment plan, the court found her
guilty and sentenced her without her even being present in court. She didn’t
know there was a warrant for her arrest until the officer who arrested her
told her so. Ms. Johnson had three part-time jobs to support her four young
children, and she lost all three jobs while behind bars.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled more than 30 years ago
that locking people up merely because they cannot afford to pay court fines
is contrary to American values of fairness and equality embedded in the 14th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court made clear that judges cannot
jail someone for failure to pay without first considering their ability to
pay, efforts to acquire money, and alternatives to incarceration.
The complaint, Brown v. Lexington
County, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South
Carolina. It cites violations of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth, Sixth, and
14th Amendments. The ACLU of South Carolina and Terrell Marshall Law Group
PLLC are co-counsel.
The Lexington County Sheriff's Department says a man
wanted on drug charges was shot and killed as deputies attempted to arrest him
Tuesday morning.
The shooting occurred at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at a
home on Seleta Circle. The Lexington County Coroner's office has identified the
man as John Bittle, 39, of Lexington.
The county's fugitive team, including deputies with the
sheriff's department, the U.S. Marshals Service, and Columbia Police were
attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Bittle. Bittle was on probation and had
absconded and law enforcement agencies were trying to locate him.
Bittle was wanted by the sheriff's department on two
counts of distributing methamphetamine. Sheriff Jay Koon said the officers
encountered Bittle outside the house, who then ran off.
"The suspect was making threatening statements to our
officers," Koon said. "The encounter ended with our deputy shooting the
suspect."
Koon said EMS was called to the scene and administered
aid to Bittle but he died.
Koon said on March 30 deputies were involved in a vehicle
chase with Bittle that started near Edmund and deputies called off the pursuit
when it entered Aiken County.
"Last week we heard statements that the suspect made
stating that he was not going to go back to jail and if he encountered law
enforcement, he was going to take some down with him," Koon said.
An autopsy for Bittle is scheduled for Wednesday.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is
investigating the shooting and will turn over the results of the investigation
to the solicitor's office. SLED said there is no body cam or dash cam video of
the incident.
According to SLED, this is the 20th officer-involved
shooting in South Carolina in 2017 and the second this year involving a
Lexington County Sheriff's deputy.
An inmate died overnight in his jail cell at the
Lexington County Detention Center.
The inmate was found "unresponsive” Monday morning around
5:30 a.m., said spokesman Capt. Adam Myrick of the Lexington County Sheriff's
Department, which administers the jail.
Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher identified the
deceased as William Dantzler Day, 43, of Gaston, who was being held at the jail
on an April grand larceny charge.
Fisher said an autopsy will be performed Tuesday to
determine the cause of death.
No further details on Day's death have yet been provided,
pending notification of his family.
Meantime, the State Law
Enforcement Division and the Lexington County Coroner's Office are investigating
the incident.
Lexington, SC (WLTX) - About 120 inmates at the Lexington
County jail are sick from some type of gastrointestinal illness.
Deputies say the inmates started having symptoms within
the last two days. Epidemiologists with the South Carolina Department of Health
and Environmental Control have been brought in to determine what it is, what's
causing it, and how it's spreading.
The county says it's done extensive cleaning of cells,
restrooms, and other common areas in an attempt to slow the spread of it.
