Trooper guarding SC governor reassigned after video shows him punching suspect David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Thursday April 3, 2008



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Print This Email This Over the last month, the South Carolina State Highway Patrol has been embroiled in controversy after videos taken from police dashboard cameras showed two different state troopers using their patrol cars to chase and even hit fleeing suspects. Now three new dashboard videos have been released, and one of them has already proven embarrassing to the governor. One video shows a trooper kicking a suspect repeatedly in the head, while a second shows a trooper hitting a man with the barrel of a shotgun while he is pinned on the ground. In the third, recorded in January 2006, Lance Cpl. E.J. Burton punches suspect Aaron Goodman several times in the face after a high-speed chase. "Because of our position the only thing I could do was use my hands to gain compliance," Burton wrote in a report. Officer Burton was ordered to undergo counseling and was later assigned to the security detail of Gov. Mark Sanford, a conservative Republican who has taken a tough stand on the violence revealed by the videos. Burton has now been reassigned at the governor's request. The governor's spokesman, Joel Sawyer, said that Sanford does not choose his security detail, to which officers are assigned based on recommendations. "We don't know if [Burton's] punishment was adequate, and it's not our role to decide that," Sawyer said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "No one in the administration, including the governor, is an expert in police policies and procedures." (with wire services) This video is from ABCNews.com, broadcast April 3, 2008.

