SC trooper's lawyer: Video shows innocence

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ A South Carolina state trooper who bragged about a crash that sent a fleeing suspect flying over the hood of his cruiser is to go on trial this week in a case drawing scrutiny from leaders of the state's African-American community.

Lance Cpl. Steve Garren is accused of using unreasonable force and depriving Marvin Grant of his civil rights in the crash, which was captured on the patrol car's dashboard video camera. Garren is white; Grant is black. A conviction in the case scheduled to begin Tuesday in a federal court in Greenville could bring the now-suspended officer 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Afterward the incident, Garren, 39, tells another trooper, "Yeah, I hit him. I was trying to hit him."

It's first of at least two civil rights abuse trials to come from a spate of police videos that appeared to show aggressive action by South Carolina troopers. The videos and how supervisors treated the officers on them brought the ousters of the heads of the Highway Patrol and Department of Public Safety earlier this year.

A second trial is also expected for a trooper accused of repeatedly kicking a truck driver in the head after a highway chase.

The head of the state NAACP said he considers the incidents similar.

"I think they are both equally premeditated," said Lonnie Randolph, chairman of the state chapter of the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People. "Whether you've got somebody with steel-toed shoes who weighs 225 pounds kicking you in the face or a person with a car weighing 2,000 pounds hitting you, I'd put the same level of criticism on both."

Garren's attorney predicted last week his client will be vindicated because of the video that shows the chase on a narrow, dark back road in Greenwood County in June 2007 after Grant bailed out of a car. Lawyer John O'Leary said Garren didn't have time to get out of the way as Grant cut in front of the cruiser. He also noted no state charges were ever brought.

"There's no way he could have intended to hit the guy based on that time frame," O'Leary said. "The truth of the matter is this crime requires that it be willful. And, you know, we just believe it wasn't. It was an accident."

The lawyer said he'll have an expert testify about how officers react to stressful situations in an attempt to explain the comments Garren made after the crash.

"I think that's the only reason we're in court. If you didn't have that comment, we wouldn't be there. That's really the crux of it," O'Leary said.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment. The 38-year-old Grant, who was sentenced in May to up to a year in jail for not paying child support, could not be reached for comment.

But state Rep. Leon Howard, the chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, which helped bring the videos to the governor's attention, said Garren's bragging shows the mind-set of the trooper.

"It's ingrained in him to think they've got the kind of authority to do the things they do. He acts like he's just hit a squirrel," said Howard, D-Columbia. "It's ridiculous that he would even say that he's innocent."