Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt charged with DUI, leaving scene of wreck
Cop pleads guilty in DUI injury crashDUI
NC police officer charged with driving while impaired
Views clash on naming Boston officers in drunken driving cases
NC police officer charged with
driving while impaired
Samuel Bradford Kilgore
RALEIGH, N.C. — An officer with
the Raleigh Police Department was charged with DWI early Friday morning,
according to WTVD.
Samuel Bradford Kilgore, 33,
was arrested around 1:30 a.m., according to officials.
A department spokesperson said
33-year old Samuel Bradford Kilgore is currently assigned to the Special
Operations Division.
He has been employed by the
department since 2005.
Details surrounding the
circumstances of the incident have not been released
Cop pleads guilty in DUI injury
crashDUI
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX)
- A former police officer pleaded guilty Friday to a drunken driving charge,
stemming from a crash that left a woman injured.
Kristofer Randall Carter
crashed last April into a gas station off Merle Haggard Drive. He plowed over
gas pumps and severely injured 20-year-old Leann Katherine Harris, who was
pumping gas at the time.
Right before crashing into the
Shell gas station, police say the drunken Carter drove onto the roadway median,
ran over bushes and sped through red lights at both Pegasus Drive and Highway
65.
As part of the guilty plea on a
single charge - DUI alcohol/drugs causing bodily injury - four other charges
were dismissed.
Sentencing is slated for Feb.
18.
Carter served as a Bakersfield
police officer from July 2006 to March 2012, according to the city's Human
Resources Division.
Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne
DeWitt charged with DUI, leaving scene of wreck
By Andy Paras and Melissa
Boughton
Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne
DeWitt was booked into the Charleston County detention center Sunday morning.
Polk asked Robert Wyndham,
DeWitt's attorney, if he would like to make an argument regarding the arrest,
but he declined and said that would be reserved for later court proceedings. A
February 11 court date was set for the DUI charge. The hit and run charge court
date has not yet been set.
DeWitt, 63, of Stratford Drive
in Goose Creek, did not make any statements during the bond hearing, and
Wyndham requested the personal recognizance bond on his behalf. Wyndham said
all of DeWitt's personal and professional ties were in Berkeley County and that
he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to society.
The victim in the crash,
identified as 21-year-old Robert B. Gonzales, could not be reached by phone
during the hearing. A trooper told the judge the extent of the victim's
injuries were unknown, but that he was treated and released from Trident
Medical Center.
The trooper also told Polk that
he was unaware that only a coroner could arrest a sheriff.
DeWitt was arrested Sunday
morning and charged with DUI and leaving the scene of a wreck involving injury.
Troopers responded at 5:50 a.m.
to a hit and run at Red Bank Road and Henry E. Brown, Jr. Boulevard, Highway
Patrol Sgt. Bob Beres said. A 2010 Ford F-150 had struck the rear of a 2013
Nissan four-door and left the scene.
As the trooper arrived at the
wreck, she was told Hanahan Police officers had stopped a pickup truck matching
the description of the one involved in the crash. She then drove to the traffic
stop at Bankton Circle in Hanahan - about four and a half miles from the crash
- and identified DeWitt as the driver, Beres said.
Hanahan Police Lt. Michael
Fowler declined to comment about the traffic stop, deferring all questions to
the Highway Patrol.
Beres would only say that it
was determined after examining physical evidence at the traffic stop that the
Berkeley County-owned truck was the same one involved in the wreck. A
subsequent field sobriety test determined DeWitt was under the influence, he
added.
The traffic stop in Hanahan
where DeWitt was arrested is just under 10 miles from his residence in Goose
Creek.
DeWitt was taken to the Al
Cannon Detention Center in Charleston, where Beres said he refused the
"Datamaster Breathalyzer" breath test. He was released almost 12
hours later from the Hill-Finklea Detention Center in Berkeley County after his
bond hearing.
Polk said DeWitt is facing up
to a year in jail for the charges, and, because he refused a breath test, his
license was automatically suspended for six months. "With a little
legwork," however, the sheriff could get a provisional license, Polk
added.
In November, the S.C.
Department of Public Safety's Office of Highway Safety awarded the Berkeley
County Sheriff's Office a $62,569 federal grant to bolster its efforts to
reduce drunk driving. It's the third year the Sheriff's Office has participated
in the program.
DeWitt's arrest came during his
office's "sober or slammer campaign," in which deputies step up DUI
enforcement as part of the grant award.
DeWitt has been sheriff since
1994 and was re-elected to the position this year. He had a challenger in the
primary race, but not in the general election.
"I have known Wayne most
of my life and I believe he has done an exemplary job as sheriff," said
Berkeley County Republican Party Chairman Josh Whitley. "My thoughts and
prayers go out to all of those involved in this."
He did not comment further.
Berkeley County Supervisor-elect Bill Peagler also did not speak to the arrest.
"Until all of the facts
are presented, I will refrain from issuing judgment and will join my family in
prayer for all of those involved in this unfortunate incident," Peagler
said.
DeWitt is the ninth sheriff in
South Carolina to be charged or investigated while in office since 2010. Of
that number, six have pleaded guilty or been convicted, and another died while
under investigation.
Only two of those sheriffs have
been sentenced to prison.
A Change.org petition had
already been created by mid-Sunday asking Gov. Nikki Haley to remove DeWitt
from office. It had 230 of 8,629 needed signatures by 9:30 p.m.
If DeWitt were indicted as a
result of the DUI crash, Haley could suspend him from office until acquitted or
until the case was otherwise disposed of, according to state law. She could
also appoint a "suitable person" to hold office during that time.
Views clash on naming Boston
officers in drunken driving cases
Department maintains secrecy
By Todd WallackG
Two specialists in the state’s
public records law say that the Boston Police Department is violating the
statute by refusing to release the names of five officers who were caught
driving drunk. But Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he has no plans to order police
to release the information.
Department officials declined
to release the names in response to requests from the Globe as part of a review
of off-duty drunken driving involving law enforcement officers. Using public
records and interviews, the Globe counted at least 30 officers in Massachusetts
since 2012 who have been caught driving drunk, including five from Boston.
In several cases, police
departments attempted to withhold records even when the officers had been in
serious crashes. The Globe also found that at least 10 officers were kept on
the police payroll after their driving privileges were suspended and they could
not perform their normal duties.
“There is no exception in the
public records laws for information embarrassing to the police,” said Jeffrey
Pyle, an attorney at Prince Lobel Tye LLP in Boston who specializes in the
First Amendment, public records, and media law.
Another First Amendment and
public records attorney, Peter Caruso Sr. of Andover, added, “These are public
records as clear as the nose on your face.”
The attorneys said the decision
to withhold the names was particularly hard to justify since Boston police have
published the names of dozens of civilians who were arrested for drunken
driving on its website. The withholding of names makes it difficult for the
press and public to determine whether the officers had been accused of drunken
driving or other misconduct before.
“Without names, these records
pose more questions than answers,” Caruso said.
Defending authority
Boston Police Lieutenant
Michael McCarthy said the city believed names of the officers were protected
under a law set up to restrict access to the state’s centralized database of
criminal records, commonly called CORI for Criminal Offender Record
Information.
“The department does not have
discretion when deciding to release this type of information,” McCarthy said.
He explained that the
department is free to release names of people who are arrested shortly after
the incidents but are prohibited from doing so when someone requests the
information later on. He declined to cite a court ruling or statute that spells
out that difference.
After initially withholding
most of the documents related to the five officers, McCarthy agreed to release
reports with the names blacked out, including two additional incident reports
showing that the officers had been in collisions.
According to one report, the
unnamed officer was severely hurt in an early morning one-car crash in Boston’s
Readville neighborhood and taken directly to the hospital instead of being
arrested. The officer was disoriented, semi-conscious, had cuts on the head and
a “large amount of blood on head, face, neck, shoulder and chest area,”
according to the report on the Dec. 13, 2012, wreck.
Boston Police withheld the
name, but the Suffolk District Attorney’s office identified the officer as
Stephen Roe, who city records showed was a canine officer. The office said
Roe’s criminal case was continued without a finding in 2013 after he admitted
to facts sufficient for a guilty verdict and agreed to attend a drunken driving
education program and give up his license for 45 days, a common resolution for
first-time offenders.
In a second incident, an
officer was arrested after crashing into a parked car in Jamaica Plain in
February 2013, damaging the side door and mirror. In that case, the officer admitted
he had been drinking and that he hit the car, according to the police report.
The officer was glassy eyed, unsteady on his feet, and slurred his speech, the
report said.
But police claimed it was too
dark to safely conduct sobriety tests and the officer refused a breath analysis
test. Though Boston Police blacked out the name, other records show Boston
Police officer Robert P. Carr was charged with operating under the influence
and refused a breath test on the same date.
Carr automatically lost his
license for 180 days for refusing the breath test and couldn’t perform his
normal duties, but Boston Police confirmed they kept him on the payroll.
McCarthy said the officer was given administrative duties that didn’t require
him to drive. The criminal case is slated to go to trial in March. Carr,
meanwhile, retired from the department after turning 65 last month.
The name of a third Boston
Police officer became public after a woman who was nearly killed by a drunk
police officer contacted the media. Richard Jeanetti was required to resign as
part of a plea bargain with prosecutors last year.
Police have yet to produce
records for two other cases where officers were accused of drunken driving
outside the city. McCarthy said the incidents involved a hit and run in January
2013 where the officer was later charged with driving drunk and another case
where the officer was accused of driving drunk in June 2012.
McCarthy said police have not
decided the punishment for the officer involved in the hit and run and never
disciplined Jeanetti because he resigned. But in the other three cases, the
officers agreed to 30-day suspensions; in two of those cases, the officers
served 10 days of the suspension and the rest was set aside.
The Globe has appealed the
withholding of the records to the secretary of state’s public records division.
The agency has not ruled.
Boston’s decision to withhold
the names contrasts with some other departments, such as Fall River and
Springfield, which released the names of officers arrested for drunken driving.
But Boston isn’t alone in
limiting the release of information. Newton blacked out the name of a Newton
officer who was arrested by Brookline Police, saying it was confidential
personnel information. And in several other instances, the Middlesex district
attorney’s office blacked out officer names on court records in drunken driving
cases, citing CORI restrictions.
Walsh said he deferred the
decision to withhold the names to the Police Department. “I have no real
understanding of what we should do or can’t do,” he said.
But Walsh defended the
department’s authority to put Carr on paid administrative duty while his
license was suspended for refusing a breath test. While officers continue to
earn their usual salary on desk duty, Walsh noted, they can’t earn extra
overtime money.
Walsh also said the department
considers the individual circumstances when deciding how to punish officers who
drive drunk. “I think the way the police department handles drunk driving cases
is one case at a time,” he added.
The head of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Massachusetts said she was concerned about the decision to
keep the names secret, particularly when the police regularly release the names
of ordinary residents who are arrested.
“When police officers treat
their own differently by keeping secrets about the department,” said Carol
Rose, the group’s executive director, “it undermines community trust and public
safety.”
