Ex-trooper who kicked man pleads guilty

Associated Press
Published: January 5, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)—A former South Carolina trooper seen on video kicking a suspect in the head has pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge.

U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins says John B. Sawyer pleaded guilty Monday to depriving a man of his right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.

Sawyer was indicted in July after the Department of Public Safety released a video that showed him kicking Sergio Caridi in the head after a 2006 highway chase in Florence.

Earlier this year, video emerged showing Sawyer kicking Caridi of Catskill, N.Y., in the head several times after an interstate chase on May 28, 2006.

Caridi had led troopers and sheriff’s deputies on a 30-mile chase that happened about 10:30 a.m. that day 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.

The video released after media requests was one of several showing South Carolina troopers acting aggressively.

Sawyer was placed on leave and later resigned from the highway patrol.

Sawyer had pleaded not guilty in July. He’ll be sentenced later. Messages left for his attorneys were not immediately returned.