A man who was bitten in the head by a Greenville County Sheriff's Office dog while hiding inside a dishwasher has had his charges from that case dismissed and been awarded $230,000 while the deputy handling the K-9 was suspended.

Kevin Leroy Scott White, of Greenville, was charged with reckless driving, resisting arrest, driving under suspension, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, failure to stop for blue light and failing to register a vehicle on April 28 in Greenville County.

Those charges were dismissed in August as White instead pleaded guilty to charges of possession of methamphetamine and failure to stop for a blue light from a pending case from 2017, according to court records obtained and first reported by The Greenville News.

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"All we can say is the charges he pled to were part of a negotiated plea on all the charges he had," said Marcia Barker, a spokeswoman for the 13th Circuit Solicitor's Office. "There were other cases, and they were all put together and he pled."

After spotting White driving a moped a day after he allegedly fled a traffic stop, deputies pursued him again on April 29, according to the Sheriff's Office.

White jumped off his moped and ran away and was later found behind his mother's mobile home on Columbia Avenue near a back patio. He was was hiding inside a dishwasher unit.

SLED called in to investigate

Deputy Kenneth Sandefur used a K-9 to track White to the site of the dishwasher, where the K-9 found him. The dog bit White's head, and he suffered injuries that caused him to be hospitalized, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The State Law Enforcement Division was called in to investigate while Sandefur was placed on paid administrative leave.

The Greenville News has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain SLED's the investigative case file.

Sandefur did not respond to phone or Facebook messages seeking comment.

The Sheriff's Office released a critical incident community briefing on YouTube on June 12 that showed portions of body-camera footage from the arrest. The video showed deputies wandering around mobile homes with the K-9 in search of White.

"He's getting dog-bit. This (expletive) is (expletive) over," Sandefur said after he got his K-9 out of his patrol vehicle. "Kevin Leroy White, you're under arrest. Come out. You're going to get bit by a police dog."

After rounding a corner of one mobile home, the K-9 found White in a dishwasher and bit down on his head, the video shows. As White screamed, Sandefur shouted "off" to the K-9 a total of seven times before the dog released his jaws from White 27 seconds later, the video shows.

The Sheriff's Office of Professional Standards completed an investigation and concluded Sandefur used excessive force, Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Ryan Flood told The Greenville News. Sandefur was also found to have violated the Sheriff's Office policy pertaining to knowledge of laws and regulations, Flood said.

Sandefur was subsequently taken off of the K-9 team and suspended for 40 hours as a measure of discipline, Flood said.

During an interview with The Greenville News in June, White's attorney Jake Erwin said he was considering pursuing civil action against the Sheriff's Office for the arrest.

"Mr. White has the right to resist an illegal arrest," Erwin said during a preliminary hearing on the case in June. "He also has the right to protect himself from a violent attack, which I believe he had every reason to expect was coming based on what the officer told him."

A pre-litigation settlement was reached, and White was awarded $230,000, according to records from the Insurance Reserve Fund obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Daniel J. Gross is an investigative watchdog reporter focusing on public safety and law enforcement for The Greenville News. Reach him at dgross@greenvillenews.com or on Twitter @danieljgross.