The Florence County Sheriff’s Office said they became aware of an incident that happened Monday involving one of their deputies. A Sgt. Paul Morrison.
In the video, someone is seen being approached by a deputy while recording and that person seems to have been tackled to the ground during their arrested.
After the man is on the ground, the camera shoots out of frame from the officer and person recording. But, you can hear the person who was recording saying, “Enjoy the lawsuit. Enjoy paying for my camera too.”
The officer then says in the video that the person would be getting a “resisting arrest” charge, to which the man recording states, “Resisting? I’m not moving.”
They both continue to go back and forth on whether or not the arrest is justified.
The sheriff’s office said they received a written complaint from a person arrested and his video was posted on YouTube.
They said they opened an Internal Affairs Investigation involving a review of all known videos, including body-worn camera video and interviews of deputies on the scene.
Deputies said the investigation determined numerous sheriff’s office policy violations happened during the incident.
Sgt. Morrison is no longer employed by the sheriff’s office as a result of the investigation and the incident has been transferred to the 12th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies added they met with the individual involved and his attorney and all existing video has been made available. Initially the footage was reported to have been deleted by Sgt. Paul Morrison. The recorder was able to recover the footage and a bit of footage showing what appears to be Sgt. Paul Morrison handling his phone while deleting the footage.
No comment has been reported regarding the allegation of Sgt. Paul Morrison deleting footage.
They said their agency has conducted training on the handling of the First Amendment rights and the training is ongoing.
