There is an interesting development in the case of North Augusta (S.C.) officer Justin Craven in the alleged murder of 68-year-old Ernest Satterwhite. Despite public disclosure laws, the police are refusing to release the videotape because they describe it as shocking and disturbing. Some would argue that that is precisely why it should be available to the public.
Craven tried to pull over Satterwhite for suspected DUI and followed him home after Satterwhite refused to pull over. However, the dashboard camera reportedly captured Craven running up to Satterwhite’s car on his driveway and fired several shots through the closed door. While he said that Satterwhite tried to grab his gun, prosecutors concluded otherwise and charged him. However, he was not charged with murder. The grand jury did not return a voluntary manslaughter charges (which would have come with a potential 30 year sentence). He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of misconduct in office and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle.
SLED Chief Mark Keel said that releasing the video would hamper the officer’s right to a fair trial. Accordingly, freedom of information requests were denied. Yet, agencies are supposed to give specific reasons for withholding videotape like undermining efforts to arrest a suspect. One of those reasons is generally not embarrassing or public reaction.
At the same time, the city reached a $1.2 million settlement with the family but required them to sign an agreement not to disclose it to anyone else.
For his part, Solicitor Donnie Myers says that he will not release the film until after it is used in court because “the premature release of the video to be used at trial … would be harmful, unfairly prejudice the pre-trial opinions of potential jurors, prejudicial to the defendant and not in the interest of justice.”
This could make for an interesting challenge by the media. Any court or prosecutor could refuse virtually any videotape out of concern for its influence on a trial. How would such an exception be measured? In the meantime, as a matter of great public importance, the community would be denied the clearest evidence of the alleged misconduct of its police department.
What do you think?
Source: Big Story
I’ve investigated many alleged “whistleblowers” who were really just personality disorder troublemakers. They get fired for legitimate reasons, much to the delight of coworkers, raise a stink, and then lo and behold, have what is called in the disability business an “occupational back.” That’s where the claim is their work caused them to have a non traumatic back injury. Healthcare workers are infamous for this, but also many other fields like factory, food service, trades, etc.
bam bam:
“Yes, there are some bad cops, but they are the exception, not the rule.”
When the “good” cops start speaking out and demanding that the “bad” cops actually get punished (hell, charged would be nice), then I’ll believe that. Instead, they remain silent or actively cover for their “bad” brethren.
“Where are your questions and concerns pertaining to communities, whose members burglarize, steal and murder on a daily basis?” As a society, we already put great resources towards dealing with those who are not officers who burgle, steal and murder. Conduct which we already consider inexcusable on the part of non-officers is just as inexcusable from officers and should be treated in the same way by the authorities.
Thanks for the link, I. Annie.
It seems Baltimore police have their spinal injury technique down pat.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/23/baltimore-has-a-history-of-accidentally-killing-its-perps.html
“In the earlier spinal injury death, 42-year-old Dondi Johnson was arrested for public urination and loaded into a police van similar to the one that would later be used to transport Gray.
Johnson underwent surgery for a serious spinal injury. He died two weeks later, and his family filed suit.”
*************
“Mistakes”, I suppose
Yeah, just like rough rides are “mistakes”.
Deemed “justifiable” by police investigating THEMSELVES, do you not see anything wrong with that Haz? Your arguments are weak and easily knocked down.
Are you saying that this cop made a “mistake” when when he repeatedly shot this great-grandfather through the driver’s door? Was there some sort of “mistake” when this officer then lied and claimed that the victim was trying to get the officer’s gun? Other cops who arrived couldn’t get the driver’s door open and had to break into the passenger side to remove the body.
How did the 68 year-old man struggle for the officer’s gun through a closed and locked car door?
Was an Italian nurse and John Wayne Gacy somehow involved?
It’s been fun, but the cattle aren’t going to wrangle themselves. Enjoy the rest of your cop-hating afternoon.
The new 2013 total of justifiable killings…….
Do you even read what you link?
And Haz, you can keep putting forth bad comparisons that make you look silly.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/11/police-killings-hundreds/18818663/
“The new 2013 total of justifiable killings represents the third consecutive increase in the annual toll. Criminal justice analysts said the inherent limitations of the database — the killings are self-reported by law enforcement, and not all police agencies participate in the annual counts — continue to frustrate efforts to identify the universe of lethal force incidents involving police.”
But you just keep on banging your “cops are bad” drum as hard as you can.
http://killedbypolice.net
2015
http://reason.com/blog/2014/12/09/more-than-1000-people-have-been-killed-b
2014
Inga – this nurse killed up to 400 patients.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/14/the-angel-of-death-and-the-hospitals-that-put-a-serial-killer-to-work.html
However nurses killing their patients because they are too much trouble and they are annoyed is what your original argument was.
It wasn’t my argument. It was a set of facts reported in the newspaper article I linked. Do you dispute that it happened? Proof? The nurse killed more people than any cop did. That’s why nurses are more dangerous than cops. Cops have guns; nurses have an array of pharmaceuticals that they can either administer or withhold in order to cause death.
Should I tell you about the nurse who nearly killed my wife after her mastectomy because of a misplaced decimal in the morphine dosage? And how when I couldn’t wake her I had to page her anesthesiologist to get any help? And how the anesthesiologist took one look at the label on the drip and went into a near panic?
Dangerous.
http://www.killedbypolice.net/msmnews.htm
Oh dear. A list of nurses who were serial killers. Link here.
Nurses are out of control and need to be reigned in. Or maybe they were intimidated into falsifying reports. Hard to tell, but there were dead bodies. Bodies made dead by nurses who were trusted by patients and their families.
Painting with a broad brush, aren’t I?
Haz,
Mistakes by healthcare workers ARE a real problem. Now you are making some sense. Finally. However nurses killing their patients because they are too much trouble and they are annoyed is what your original argument was. Nice little dance you are doing here, very entertaining, lol.
Interesting article. Nurses’ mistakes cause thousands of deaths. Click here for link.
That sounds problematic and widespread, no?
Haz, actually your cheeks SHOULD be red for putting forth such a weak argument comparing rogue nurses to rogue cops. The incidence of police overreach and violence is far more problematic and widespread than nurse misconduct. Nurses generally get in trouble with administration of healthcare facilities for being strong advocates for their patients, not killing them by giving them a rough ride in the wheelchair.
Inga – here is a nurse who killed 38 patients because they annoyed her.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/italian-nurse-kills-38-annoying-patients-cops-article-1.1973459