SC Appeals Court upholds decision that Richland County deputies wrongfully arrested security officer
COLUMBIA SC Jan 21, 2021— A state appeals court has upheld that Richland County Sheriff’s deputies wrongfully arrested a security guard outside a Columbia nightclub almost 15 years ago.
The case stemmed from a 2008 encounter where Richland County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a contracted private security guard for a club on Two Notch Road and charged him with misdemeanor assault after they said he had overstepped his duties in chasing and arresting someone who had been causing problems at the club.
The security guard, Demetrius Mack, sued the Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Leon Lott in 2010 after he was cleared of the charge, alleging he was falsely arrested and jailed.
Richland County Circuit Court Judge DeAndrea Benjamin ruled in Mack’s favor in 2012, awarding him $7,500 in damages.
Lott appealed, with aspects of the case being heard by the state Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals before being sent back to circuit court where a judge affirmed the initial ruling.
The S.C. Court of Appeals in an opinion Jan. 19 agreed with the lower court ruling, saying officers didn’t have probable cause to charge Mack with a crime.
Lott had argued in court filings that a reasonable officer could have concluded that Mack had tackled the man in the public road and committed assault.
Efforts to reach Lott and a sheriff’s office spokesperson were not successful Jan. 19.
On that night in December 2008, the club’s security had repeatedly turned away a man who tried to enter without paying a cover charge, with the man eventually becoming belligerent and making threatening gestures to the guards from the road near the club, according to court documents.
Mack, working security that night, told the man he would arrest him if he was seen on the property again. When the man returned to the club, Mack gave chase.
While running away, the man slipped and fell between two parked cars, where Mack handcuffed him, court documents say.
Richland County Sheriff’s deputies responding to an unrelated call nearby saw the commotion and came over.
Mack told the officers he wanted to issue the man a trespass notice so that he could be arrested the next time he stepped foot on club property. Deputies instead told Mack he had exceeded his authority in chasing the man off of the private property into a public road and, noting blood on the man’s hands and clothes, charged Mack with simple assault.
Mack was found not guilty on the assault charge after the man he chased didn’t show up to testify in court, records show.
In siding with Mack, the circuit court noted a deputy had initially testified that he saw Mack tackle the man in the road but that other evidence contradicted the officer’s statement.
Another deputy wrote in an incident report that the man being chased was found in the grass near a parked car, and a judge determined after reviewing still photos and grainy dashcam footage that the man was more likely to have been on private property than the public road.
postandcourier.com