Officer is fired...news conference with sheriff is on now. Sheriff says officer was ok till he tossed student.....also says officer has had several complaints along with the already posted lawsuits.
Also basically just said school needs to handle school issues and the role of resource officers will be re-evaluated.
"" Sheriff’s Department Senior Deputy Ben
Fields was fired Wednesday, two days
after an altercation between him and a
female student at Spring Valley High
School was caught on video and posted
online.
Three videos, shot by students, show
Fields throwing the student to the ground
and dragging her across the classroom
floor. The videos sparked national
outrage and a civil rights investigation
by the FBI and U.S. Justice Department.
The videos circulated widely online and
on television.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said
the internal investigation involved
whether Senior Deputy Fields followed
protocol when asked to remove the
student from the classroom at about 11
a.m. Monday.
He did not, Lott said.
Criminal charges, if there are any, would
come from the FBI and the U.S. Justice
Department, Lott said. On Monday, he
asked them to investigate. Those agencies
announced Tuesday they had opened a
civil rights investigation into Fields’
actions.
Lott said the girl was on her cellphone
and not participating in class. He said she
was asked by a teacher, and then by an
administrator, to leave the classroom but
didn’t. That’s when the deputy was called
and asked to remove her, he said.
Lott said Wednesday that the teacher and
the administrator said they didn’t think
the deputy used excessive force.
Still, he said, Fields did not follow
protocol.
“I have a problem with that,” he said.
He wasn’t a hard decision, he said.
“Deputy Fields did wrong,” Lott said. “...
When he threw her across the room,
that’s when I made my decision.”
Schools are for learning, Lott said.
School resource officers are in schools to
help students learn, he said.
“But, sometimes, deputies do wrong,” he
said. “... He should not have thrown the
student.”
Still, the student disrupted that school,
that class, Lott said.
“Let’s not forget that. What she did
doesn’t justify what our deputy did. But
she needs to be held responsible.”
Some procedures could change, he said.
“We’re going to talk to the school
districts so they understand that when
they call us, we’re going to take a law
enforcement action,” Lott said. “...
Should (the deputy) ever have been
called there? ... We’re going to look at
that.”
Lott said he learned that all of the work
he and his deputies have done in past
years helping to build community – with
churches, with schools, with residents –
means that people expected him to do the
right thing and that the community will
be strong going forward.
“People expect us to do the right thing,”
Lott said. “... Citizens should use their
cellphone and police the police. That’s
their job.”
The girl’s lawyer, Columbia’s Todd
Rutherford, told ABC’s “Good Morning
America” on Wednesday that the student
suffered arm, neck, back and head
injuries.
Lott said Tuesday he thought she might
have suffered no more than a rug burn.
Fields has had three lawsuits filed against
him as a deputy. In one, involving an
excessive-force allegation before Fields
worked in schools, a federal jury found
in his favor. Another case was dismissed,
the Associated Press reported. The third
suit, which is ongoing, alleges Fields
wrongly pushed for a Richland 2
student’s expulsion.""
http://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article41674731.html
