Ex-SC trooper gets probation in I-95 kicking incident

CHARLESTON — A former South Carolina trooper caught on video kicking a suspect in the head after a highway chase has been sentenced to three years probation. John B. Sawyer must serve a year and a day of that in a halfway house.

Sawyer, who tearfully apologized, was sentenced Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge David Norton in Charleston. He pleaded guilty Jan. 5 to violating Sergio Caridi’s civil rights and faced up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, although federal guidelines recommend he serve less than two years.

Sawyer, 34, was indicted July 17 after the state released a video that showed him kicking Caridi in the head several times during the May 2006 incident on Interstate 95. Law enforcement personnel, a doctor and a minister told Norton the officer on the tape was not the Sawyer they knew. The year-and-a-day in a halfway house means Sawyer is eligible for good time, meaning he might only have to serve 85 percent of the term.

Caridi, of Catskill, N.Y., had led troopers and sheriff’s deputies on a 30-mile chase that happened about 10:30 a.m. May 28, 2006, on Interstate 95 in a dump truck.

The chase began after Latta police clocked Caridi driving 65 mph in a 25 mph zone and got on I-95 at mile marker 181, S.C. Department of Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden said in an interview with the Morning News two days after Caridi’s arrest. Dillon and Florence county sheriff’s deputies and troopers soon joined the chase.

After Caridi sideswiped a trooper’s vehicle, officers shot out several of the truck’s tires and hit its diesel fuel tank. Gaulden said the chase lasted about five more miles before the truck came to a stop when it ran of out fuel at mile marker 143 in Sumter County.

In the video, Caridi got out of the vehicle with his hands up and got on the ground before Sawyer kicked him in the head.

Caridi appeared to try to get up off the ground, and Sawyer kicked him again. Another officer uses a Taser on Caridi, who was subsequently handcuffed and taken to the Florence County Detention Center in Effingham, according to disciplinary records.

“The driver got out of his vehicle on his hands and knees but would not listen to commands because he kept getting up,” Sawyer wrote in a report about the incident. “I attempted to keep him on the ground by hitting his arms with my leg but he continued.”

Caridi was charged with first-offense driving under the influence, assault and battery with intent to kill, resisting arrest, failure to stop for a blue light and first-offense driving without a license, booking reports show.

In a report filed several days after the incident, 12th Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements III wrote the troopers’ actions were justified, “with the exception of the officer who repeatedly kicked the individual after he got out of the truck,” recommending that Sawyer remain on leave while the patrol continued its review.

Sawyer, who started work as a trooper in May 2000, was placed on administrative leave afterward. He resigned several months later, becoming a deputy for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, according to disciplinary records.

Sawyer’s lawyer says he should not be sent to prison because widespread publicity and the fact Sawyer is a former law officer would make him a target of other inmates in prison.

Sawyer also suffers from diabetes. His attorneys say the disease should be taken into account in his sentencing because it may have impaired his judgment during the chase. Sawyer suffered diabetic reactions just before and after the pursuit and had just injected himself with insulin when the chase began, O’Leary wrote.

Sawyer’s sentencing will mark the conclusion of an investigation into the Patrol that began last year when videos showing troopers acting aggressively were made public in response to media requests. The chiefs of the Highway Patrol and Public Safety resigned amid criticism from black lawmakers, and three troopers taped while hitting suspects have faced felony civil rights charges.