A South Carolina sheriff and two of his department's top law enforcement agents have been charged over allegations they attempted to cover-up an illegal arrest and then lied to the FBI about it.
Chester County Sheriff George Alexander Underwood, 55, Lieutenant Johnny Ricardo Neal, Jr., 39, and Chief Deputy Robert Andrew Sprouse, 44, are all accused of a string of offenses including lying to police and civil rights violations in relation to a conspiracy to cover-up excessive use of force and an unlawful arrest which resulted in a man spending three days in jail.
The charges relate to an incident on November 20 involving Fort Lawn resident Kevin Simpson, who was filming Underwood, Neal, and Sprouse responding to a car accident and fleeing suspect.
According to U.S. Attorney Sherri A. Lydon, Underwood asked Simpson to retreat from his yard and back to his porch while officers dealt with the accident. After Simpson refused and continued to live-stream the incident from the yard, Underwood returned around 25 minutes later and attempted to grab Simpson and take his cellphone off him.
Underwood then told Simpson he was under arrest. Neal arrived to put him in handcuffs and place him in a patrol vehicle, injuring Simpson's head and elbow in the process. Neal then directed the transport officer to place a "hold" on Simpson, resulting him being held in jail for three nights without cause.
Realizing the incident had been broadcast online, prosecutors said the sheriff and Sprouse lied about a radio being lost during Simpson's arrest so they could obtain a warrant to get inside the suspect's home to look for his cellphone.
After Sprouse retrieved the cellphone from the home without consent, he delivered it to a Sheriff's deputy in charge of evidence collection.
Neal and Sprouse are then accused of falsifying an arrest report which wrongly stated that Simpson repeatedly left his yard to enter the road and was verbally abusive to officers. Underwood and Sprouse allegedly faked a disciplinary report which attempted to shift the blame to the deputy in charge of evidence collection for taking the cellphone.
The sheriff and Sprouse have also been charged with attempting to destroy or conceal the phone so it could not be used in a federal rights case involving Simpson.
In addition, Underwood faces charges of lying to the FBI about not knowing that the cellphone had been removed and that he only saw the footage Simpson broadcast about one week after the incident when in fact he viewed it the same day, prosecutors said.
Sprouse also allegedly told the FBI he did not know how the phone was retrieved from the house when he was the one who had taken it.
"Today, we announce the worst kind of charges: Allegations of wrongdoing on the part of law enforcement," Lydon said in a statement. "Those who swear to protect and uphold the law, while at the same time using their positions of power to hide their own violations of the law, will be held accountable. The American system of government depends on those in power obeying the rules and ensuring that all individuals are treated fairly and equally."
If convicted, Underwood faces up to 51 years in jail, Sprouse faces 70 years and Neal could spend a maximum of 35 years behind bars.
Simpson's attorney, Everett Stubbs, said in a statement to The Herald: "The facts of this ugly situation are not a typical representation of how the vast majority of law enforcement officers interact with citizens that they have sworn to serve and protect.
"We are appreciative of law enforcement in general and particularly for those law enforcement agencies that refuse to allow the bad apples to survive in the greatest justice system in the world.
"The FBI and the US Attorney's office here in South Carolina have acted like true professionals, and we feel confident that the wheels of justice will continue to turn for Mr Simpson and his family."
Underwood, Neal, and Sprouse are set to appear at the Matthew J. Perry Federal Courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina, on May 21 to face the charges.
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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