The Aiken Standard is suing the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division and the City of North Augusta over a 2014 police dash-cam video they refuse to release.
S.C. Press Association attorney Jay Bender, who is representing the Aiken Standard, filed the four-page complaint Thursday afternoon at the Aiken County Court of Common Pleas.
On the evening of Feb. 9, 2014, then North Augusta Department Public Safety officer Justin Craven shot and killed 68-year-old Edgefield County resident Earnest Satterwhite Sr., who was unarmed and sitting in his car. The incident occurred after Satterwhite led Craven on a 13-mile police chase that began in North Augusta and ended on Satterwhite's driveway in Edgefield County.
The entirety of the incident was reportedly captured on dash-cam video, all of which, the Aiken Standard is seeking from the defendants in the complaint.
In April, both SLED and the City of North Augusta denied the Aiken Standard's Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests and refused to release any dash-cam video. The City of North Augusta stated that "the City is not the proper party to make a determination as to whether your request is subject to this exemption."
Although the City deferred the decision on releasing the video to SLED, the state's top law enforcement division said it would not release the video because it was part of an ongoing investigation and because Craven's attorney, Jack Swerling, had filed a motion in April asking the judge to suppress the release of the video.
According to the suit filed Thursday, the newspaper believes SLED and the City of North Augusta have "improperly sought to claim exemptions from the mandatory disclosure requirements of the (Freedom of Information) Act which do not exist in law or which do not have application to this defendant."
In addition, the complaint states that the denial by both parties of the newspaper's request for access to public records is a "violation of the (Freedom of Information) Act," and that the South Carolina General Assembly has "determined that a violation of the Act is an irreparable injury for which no adequate remedy exists in law."
The Aiken Standard is also asking for a judgment declaring that both defendants must not continue to violate FOIA law by "failing or refusing to provide access to public records;" claim "exemptions from the mandatory disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act that neither exist in law nor have application to either defendant" and that both parties cover the plaintiff's attorney fees and costs.
Aiken Standard Editor Tim O'Briant said although taking the City of North Augusta to court is "pretty extreme," the City's "stubborn refusal" to release the dash-cam video is a "pretty extreme violation of the Freedom of Information Act."
"The reasons they have given just don't hold water as far as the legal exceptions they're allowed to claim," O'Briant said. "In the end, I think it boils down to this video makes them look bad and they don't want it out there. No matter what charges Craven faces, if this video proved he did nothing wrong, they would have released it (the dash-cam video) a year ago."
The defendants have 30 days to respond to the complaint.
Craven on trial
Justin Craven was indicted last month on the felony charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, following the 2014 shooting death of Satterwhite.
An Edgefield County jury in August indicted Craven on one count of official misconduct in office - a misdemeanor - but no-billed a charge of voluntary manslaughter. Because Craven was indicted, he will face both charges of felony and official misconduct, said 11th Circuit Solicitor Donnie Myers.
Craven's trial could come as soon as September or November, Myers said.
The felony charge against Craven, brought by the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division, is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000, or both.
Although the indictments, Craven's attorney maintains Craven's innocence, stating his client "feared for his life" after Satterwhite allegedly grabbed Craven's gun.
Craven has since been suspended as an officer, but remains a North Augusta City employee in the building standards department.
The City of North Augusta agreed to pay nearly $1.2 million in March to Satterwhite's estate to settle a wrongful-death suit filed by his brother.
In a separate, but related legal action in May, the Aiken Standard and television station WRDW News-12 filed a court motion in an attempt to get the dash-cam video released, following Swerling's request that the trial judge suppress the release of the video until the video has been viewed in court.
Swerling's motion asked a South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Thomas Russo to prohibit the release of any dash-cam video on the grounds that the video should only be viewed in a courtroom setting "so as not to influence any prospective jurors before Craven's trial."
Russo has given no indication when he will hear arguments on the motions in the criminal case.
Maayan Schechter is the local government reporter with Aiken Standard. An Atlanta native, she studied mass communications-journalism degree at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Follow her on Twitter @MaayanSchechter.
