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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

South Carolina Sheriff Comments on School Arrest During Press Conference. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 28, 2015 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, everyone. I want to get you down to Columbia, South Carolina, where Sheriff Leon Lott is announcing what's going to happen to that school resource officer after that telling video was released of a 16-year-old girl being slammed out of a desk.

SHERIFF LEON LOTT, RICHLAND COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA: Or any actions or anything that I'll say in the future is - should be construed to condone or justify any of the actions of Ben Fields at Spring Valley on Monday.

He was wrong in some of his actions. It's not what I expect of my deputies, and it's not what I tolerate from any of my deputies, especially those that are in a school when we're dealing with juveniles.

Now, as in any incident, videos are very useful to us. We're glad that these students did take the videos. We welcome people to video us when we do our job. And most of the time it shows that we're doing our job in a correct manner. And then when it shows that we don't do it in a correct manner, then we'll address it. But , videos are something that we welcome. Hopefully one day soon, we'll have videos on all - cameras on all of our deputies. We are them on our cars, but we haven't gotten to the point where we've got them on all of our deputies.

Videos are just a snapshot. They don't tell the complete picture. My job, and our job, is to get the complete picture. And either - and to do that, we have to look at all the videos, we have to take statements, we have to look at everything so we can look at what the full picture of the events are that happens in any kind of incident.

Now, this happened at 11:00 a.m. approximately on Monday. We're just slightly over 48 hours. And I'm going to have to say, I congratulate my internal affairs division for doing a very quick job, and doing a very thorough job, and the task that I gave them to do, and that was to investigate this incident as a policy violation to see if Deputy Fields broke any of our policies and procedures that we do. I think somebody asked yesterday, normally in cases like this, it take as long extended time to do it. This one did not need to take very long. The videos helped, the statements we got, our proper policy and procedures that we go by are already there for us to know what (INAUDIBLE). It was not something that needed to take long, and it didn't take long. I think sometimes, in these cases, and maybe other places, they take a little bit unnecessary time. Well, we felt like we needed to do this very quickly because the public needed to know what happened and what our response was going to be to this.

Again, our responsibility was to do the internal investigation solely, solely on policy violations. When this was first brought to my attention on Monday, even though I was out of town at a law enforcement conference in Chicago, we took action very quickly. Deputy Fields was placed on suspension without pay. He has been on that until today.

I also immediately contacted FBI and asked them to do the criminal investigation on this. The first - the first was a phone call, and then it was followed up by a written request. I felt like that the FBI was the only agency that needed to be investigating this. That - did not want anybody to come up with any type of reason to say that this was not properly investigated and handled by the authorities that needed to be handled.

The FBI is one of the most - the most trusted and respected law enforcement agencies in this state and probably in the world. And that's why I turned to them and asked them to conduct a full and through investigation to see if there was any criminal violation, and the FBI accepted that. I also contacted the U.S. attorney's office and asked them to be part of that and that the Justice Department be part of looking into these actions also. Our U.S. attorney, William Nettles, agreed to that. And so the FBI and civil rights division has initiated an investigation. It was started yesterday. They've already have it full swing. We're fully cooperating with them to make sure that they have everything that they need.

We took statements from the teacher and the administrator that was - that was present. This incident started with a very disruptive student in a class. The student was not allowing the teacher to teach, and was not allowing the students to learn. She was very disruptive, she was very disrespectful, and she started this whole instance with her actions. She refused the - to leave the class as directed by the teacher. She refused to follow his instructions.

[12:04:59] He called from assistance from the school administrator. The school administrator got there, who is African-American, and he attempted to get her to leave the class also. She refused his instructions and continued disrespectful to him. All the while the students are still in the class. They're supposed to be there learning. Their education was put on hold while this disruptive student had to be dealt with.

At that point, School Resource Officer Ben Fields was called. The situation was explained to him. He attempted to get the student to leave. He was then asked to remove her from the class. And at that point, I think we've seen the various videos. I will - will note that the teacher and the school administrator in their statements both fully support the actions of Ben Fields. They said that he acted appropriately, that he didn't use excessive force, that he did what was necessary. And that's - that came from - from both of them who were present when this happened. The third video from another student who also supports Officer Fields actually shows the student, the female student, striking Ben Fields, and her resisting when he tried to get her from - from her chair. Once he put her hands on her, he was allowed to do that. He placed her

under arrest. He verbally told her that she was under arrest. He attempted to use force to make the arrest. I do not feel that the proper procedures were used at that point. And that's - that's what's caused me, my heartburn and what my issues with this. The maneuver that he used was not based on the training or acceptable.

Our training unit looked at it. They examined it. I have a written report from them, which I'll share with all of you, which goes into details on the force continuum, how we train our officers, and what we expect of them in circumstances like this. Their recommendation to me was that Deputy Fields did not follow proper training, did not follow proper procedure when he threw the student across the room. From the very beginning, that's what's caused me to be unset when I first saw that video and continues to upset me when I see that video is the fact that he picked the student up, and he threw the student across the room. That is not a proper technique and should not be used in law enforcement. And based on that, that is a violation of our policy, and approximately 20 minutes ago, School Resource Officer ben Fields was terminated from the Richland County Sheriff's Department.

We have some 87 school resource officers throughout the schools in Richland County. Every day - everyday these deputies do a fantastic job. They work very closely with the students, the faculty and the parents, and they develop a great relationship. Monday's actions by Deputy Fields was not typical of the job that I expect them to do, parents expect them to do, students expect them to do, and the community expects them to do. By and large, we have great S.R.O.s.

We get cops grants. We get cops grants to assist us in putting school resource officers in our schools. As a requirement of the cops grant, we recently had an investigative team come down and just do a routine examination of our school resource officer program. They went to various schools to look at the number of incarcerations that we have, the number of discipline actions that are taken at our school, the activities of - of our S.R.O.s. One of the schools they went and they did a close examination of was Spring Valley High School, and they talked to School Resource Officer Deputy Ben Fields. And they gave Spring Valley very high remarks for their efforts in reducing the number of arrests in that school. Their examination is to make sure that there's no civil rights violations with our school resource officers and the school district. And that was just recently conducted.

My responsibility now is to continue to build and maintain the relationship that the sheriff's department has with the community. This is accomplished by doing many things. The first one is, taking responsibility for officers when they do something wrong. I've built my reputation on standing up for our deputies when they are right, and also standing up here and saying and admitting that when our deputies do wrong. And Deputy Ben Fields did wrong this past Monday. So we're taking that responsibility for that.

[12:10:06] We need to act swiftly and with transparency. That's what we try to do. We also want to publicly address the situation and request an independent investigation. And we have done all those things. I feel like we have moved very quickly on this, and we've done the right thing in our actions in terminating him. We're doing the right thing in continuing to build that relationship that we have with the community.

I have contacted various elected officials from federal, state and local and discussed that with them, discussed it with our religious community. We have a group of pastors that are here with us now that I've been in close contact with. Our Citizens Advisory Councils, we have those members here. For those that are not familiar with us at Richland County, we're the only agency in the state of South Carolina to have a Citizens Advisory Council. These are individuals from our community that come in and they review everything that we do at our sheriff's department, our policies, our procedures, our disciplinary actions, our terminations. They have full access to everything that we do. They help us have transparency. They help us have the voice of the community in everything that we do at this sheriff's department.

They are here now. This case will be presented to them, and they'll review it. But we didn't have time to call an emergency meeting and present it to them first. I felt like we needed to do what we're doing right now, and it needed to be done very quickly. But I've invited them to be here. The chairman's here, and a majority of their members are here also.

Now, our schools are schools for education. S.R.O.s are a part of that process. And when a classroom is disrupted by a student, that disrupts the education process. And the students can't learn and the teachers can't teach. We have to have discipline in our schools.

Now, whose responsibility is that? That falls on all of us. That falls on parent. That falls on the student. That falls on the teachers and the administrations. We must not lose sight that this whole incident started by this student. She is responsible for initiating this action.

Some responsibility that falls on her. Now, the action of our deputies, I take - we take responsibility for that. But we also have to put responsibility on her for disrupting that school, disrupting that class, and causing this incident to start from the very beginning.

Now, what she did doesn't justify what our deputy did. I don't want anybody to think that. It doesn't justify his actions. But, again, she needs to be held responsible for what she did. Our schools must be an educational environment, and it's the responsibility of everyone to make sure it's that way. And it starts with the parents, goes through the students and goes through all of us.

This has been a very difficult situation for all of us. I not only answer to the citizens of Richland County, but I also answer to a 12- year-old at my house, my daughter who's in the 7th grade. And I would hope that all parents will take the opportunity that I have to sit down and talk with your children about what happened. This needs to be a learning opportunity for all of us. We need to talk to our kids, that sometimes young people make bad decisions, and they should be held accountable for that and that they should have discipline and they should have respect and they should have that everywhere, but it's particularly in our schools. And I've talked to my daughter about that. And I've talked to my daughter also that police officers make mistakes, too, and they're human and they need be held accountable and that's what we've done with Deputy Ben Fields, that we've held him accountable also.

Denying that this was a very terrible incident is not going to accomplish anything, so we're not denying that. But we also don't need to create unnecessary conflicts. This should be a time of building bridges, and not tearing bridges down. So I hope those in this community that will remain to be here long after all these cameras are gone, that we continue to build the bridges that we have between our citizens and the sheriff's department. We have an excellent relationship here. This one incident is not going to tear it down. And we're going to work very hard to continue to have that relationship through our Citizens Advisory Council. That - that is a tremendous asset to us. The relationships we have with the religious community, and with all the communities here. We're not going to let this destroy what we've built up for so many years, and having a great relationship here between the sheriff's department and the citizens.

Questions.

QUESTION: Sheriff, what should -

[12:15:00] QUESTION: Have you - has this officer faced disciplinary action before? Have you had complaints about this behavior either directly to you or through parents and through school associations or through the school district? And also, could you please give us his personnel file today?

LOTT: No, I'm not going to release his personnel file. I'm standing here right here today.

QUESTION: I'm sorry?

LOTT: No, not right at this moment I'm not going to release his personnel file.

QUESTION: OK.

LOTT: We - we'll deal with that. He has had complaints in the past. We have not had complaints from the school district on him at any time. We have not had any complaints from the school district on him. He has had complaints in the past. Some of them have been sustained, as meaning he's done them, and some of them have not been. He's been sued in the past. The lawsuit went to trial, and a jury found that he did not do the things that he was accused of.

QUESTION: Sheriff, can you tell us what Ben Fields should have done in that situation.

LOTT: I can tell you what he should not have done. What he should not have done is thrown the student. That's what he should not have done. He could have maybe done a lot of things that he is trained to do, but he was not trained to throw the student. When you make an arrest from someone who does not have a weapon that you need to escape from, you never let go of that subject. You remain in control of them, the person you're trying to arrest. When he threw her across the room, he lost control of her. That's not acceptable. That's what violated our policy.

QUESTION: Is there a policy gap -

QUESTION: Sheriff, has Deputy Fields expressed any remorse to you or to the department?

LOTT: I don't know if the word is remorse. He's sorry that this whole thing occurred. It was not his intent. His intent was not to do anything that brought discredit on the sheriff's department or him or that school. He tried to do his job. And that's what he feels like he did, he tried to do his job. It happened very quickly. His actions was something that, if he probably had to do it over again, he would probably do it different.

QUESTION: Did you speak to him personally?

QUESTION: Sheriff -

LOTT: Yes, I did speak to him personally.

QUESTION: This goes back to - as lay people who haven't had law enforcement training, how do you do that correctly? You don't obviously throw her out of this - out of the chair, but how do you get her out if she's refusing to get out of the seat?

LOTT: Well, the first thing you do is you try to use some verbal communications. We would hope that physical force would be the last resort. She wasn't a danger at that point. She was just being noncompliant and disrespectful. You try to use verbal commands and you try to do it verbally. You try to de-escalate the situation instead of escalate it. And then when you do have to put your hands on someone, there's techniques that we're taught. There's pressure points. There's other things that you use. It's called pain compliance. And throwing someone across the room is not pain compliance. And that's not something that we teach.

QUESTION: Sheriff, clearly, you are taking this with the utmost of seriousness. We have heard from the community with the backdrop of the church massacre here. Earlier this year, with Baltimore and New York (INAUDIBLE) and everything that's happened here, I just wanted you to be able to reflect and maybe - and tell us, what is it like, quickly (ph), there's great interest from around the country in this, what is it like to be at the center of something like this, in this particular time. You've been the sheriff for 20 years. I'm sure in law enforcement much longer. Columbia's changed, the country's changed. What's it like to be here today?

LOTT: Well, I think what you're seeing today is bringing out the best of the Columbia community. You haven't seen riots. You haven't seen protests. You haven't seen burning the buildings. What you've seen is people come together. We have the numerous churches represented here. We have the Citizens Advisory Council here. I think people here know that we're going to do the right thing, and they expect us to do the right thing. And that's what you're seeing. You're seeing some swift action by us. You're seeing that we're doing the right thing. I think that's what this community expects us to do. And they waited to see us do that. And I think you've seen that throughout South Carolina, that, you know, we deal with situations. We don't run from them. We don't deny them. We address them head on, and then we try to find solutions for them, and then we move on. And that's what you're seeing here.

QUESTION: Sheriff, can I have a follow-up -

QUESTION: Sheriff, initially your office told us that there had been no injuries sustained in this incident. Yesterday you characterized that the girl had received something like rug burn. Now her lawyer says that she sustained injuries to her arm, neck and back. Was your original characterization accurate?

LOTT: It was accurate with the information that was given. That's what I was told and that's what the officers on the scene and the school administration all expressed. They - nobody said anything about any injuries besides what I described yesterday as occurring. Now what's occurred once she has an attorney, you know, that may be a different story.

[12:20:10] QUESTION: Sheriff, while he was found to have violated the policies and procedures, will this incident change any of the training S.R.O.s have to go through or any (INAUDIBLE)?

LOTT: Well, of course we're going to use this as a learning opportunity for all of us. We'll take what he did and the mistake that he made and we'll make sure that all of our deputies who are in the school, and then all the deputies throughout the sheriff's department, learn from that and know that they're - you have to do things differently and not like he did. We're also going to talk very closely with the school districts in making sure that they understand that when they call us, that we're going to take a law enforcement action. They're there to take administrative actions. And if they - if they want us to take a law enforcement action, then we'll do that. But if they don't want us, then they don't need to call us that. You know, maybe it needs to be re-examined on the role of the S.R.O. that some of these schools are using us for. Should he have ever been called there? Now that's something we're going to talk to the school district about. Maybe that should have been something handled by the teacher and that school administrator without ever calling the deputy.

QUESTION: Sheriff -

LOTT: Yes, ma'am?

QUESTION: Sheriff, you said that her actions were very disruptive, (INAUDIBLE) were very disruptive during the class. Can you get specific on how and what she did to be very disruptive?

LOTT: She wasn't following the instructions of the teacher. There were certain things the students were supposed to be doing. I think they had Chrome books they were supposed to be studying from and doing something that's education-related. She was not doing that. She was using her phone. He had asked her to put it up. She continued to do it. She wasn't doing what the other students were doing. He was trying to teach. The teacher was trying to teach. That's his job. She was preventing that from happening because she was not paying attention and then she was verbally disrespectful, would not do what he asked her to do. When he wrote her up and told her to leave and go to the office, see refused to do it. She continued to disrupt the class. So from the moment that she started and it continued and it continued right on through when the officer got involved in it. So she prevented the what occurring, what's supposed to happen in a classroom and that's for the teacher to teach, and the students to learn. She prevented that from happening by her actions.

QUESTION: Is she facing charges?

QUESTION: Were there any prior behavioral issues with this student or anything that Officer Fields and the administrators would have been aware of?

LOTT: I don't know. I mean I don't know the student's history at the school. And really that - to me, that doesn't matter. That's not something we looked at. And I think I said that yesterday, the student's behavior, what she did was not what I looked at. What I looked at was what my guy did, and that's why he was terminated for was his - his actions, not anything that she had to do, entirely what he did. That's what we looked at.

QUESTION: Sheriff, is she facing charges?

QUESTION: Sheriff, did the school ever relay you any concerns about Deputy Fields. It seems he had a certain reputation among some of the students. They'd nicknamed him "Officer Slam." Was any of that ever brought to your attention?

LOTT: No. He's been at that school for seven years. He's highly respected as a school resource officer. They wanted him at Spring Valley. He has tremendous support from the faculty and staff at Spring Valley and from students. You know, of course, when something like this happens, you do have people that's going to come up and say things they've never said before. We have never heard anything like that. It's never been a complaint. It's been - it's been absolutely totally the opposite. If the school had had any problems, they wouldn't have allowed him to be a football coach. They - he was part of that school administration, part of that staff. So there was no signs or no indications or anything like that.

And, you know, I've read and heard some things that students have said, but I've also been contacted by a lot of parents, a lot of students and from officials from that school who were totally in support of him, what he's done in the past and what he did the other day. But, again, my decision is based on what he did as a deputy sheriff, as a representative of me at that school, when he put his hands on her, when he threw her across the room, that's what I made my decision on.

QUESTION: Sheriff, given that the officer is not following policy, have all the charges been dropped (INAUDIBLE)? LOTT: Sorry.

QUESTION: Based on the information that you now have, what - what injuries did the student sustain?

LOTT: I don't know. I have just heard the same news reports that the attorney now, and again, now you would have to look at what happens now. How different people now will become involved in it. You know, we've got - I've heard criticism that I didn't move - we didn't move fast enough. This is slightly over 48 hour. I doubt very seriously there's been any other case in the nation that's something similar like this that moved as quickly and we took action as what we have done. You know, that's - that's - that's what we're going to do.

Somebody in the back had something. Somebody in the back?

[12:25:00] QUESTION: Yes. Have all the charges been dropped against (INAUDIBLE)? Why was she arrested?

LOTT: I don't know all the facts about her. I did not deal with that. To my understanding, no charges have been dropped against anybody. And to my understanding, the charges are going to continue. What they - what they did was wrong. They violated the law. Now, what Officer Fields did is wrong, also. We're dealing with that. But we're not going to lose sight of what the students did also. So I'm not - I don't know all the facts. I'm not on - I don't know all the facts from her arrest, so I can't address her. What I'm addressing is what my officer did.

QUESTION: What about in the past, has he ever raised any concerns? Can you talk about the past complaints and the ones that were sustained?

LOTT: No, because I don't know everything about them. I mean it - it -

QUESTION: Have you ever had any cause for concern or had to talk to him about -

LOTT: If I've had cause or concern and felt that he was a danger, then he wouldn't have been in the school. If the school thought that he was a problem, they wouldn't have allowed him to be at Spring Valley for seven years. Prior to that, he was at E.A.L. (ph) Wright Middle School. He received an award for character and stuff. So, again - again -

QUESTION: But she also has a point. She said that had been sustained.

LOTT: Right. And -

QUESTION: What were they?

LOTT: Honestly, I don't know. I haven't - I haven't examined that. That's not what I looked at. What I've been concerned with over the last 48 hours is what happened at Spring Valley High School on Monday. That's what - that's what I've looked at and that's what I've made my decision based on. QUESTION: So who will face what charges going forward? What - what

will the student face now that you've gone through the investigation and you can properly charge them or when will the charge -

LOTT: Well, the -

QUESTION: And then, will the officer face any charges?

LOTT: Well, I don't know if the officer is going to face charges, because we only did the policy violations. That's what - that's up to the FBI. We've turned that completely over to the FBI. So if any criminal charges come, it will come from the FBI, the United States Attorney's Office. The student that were arrested, the original charge stands. There's nothing happened or changed with those charges at all. They still need to be held accountable for their actions. This - you know, what Deputy Fields did doesn't excuse them for what they did. And, you know, that - to me, that's two separate things. He did wrong, they did wrong also. He's been held accountable for his wrong. They should be held accountable for their wrong also.

QUESTION: Sheriff, you mentioned that the teacher and administrator gave statements in support of Deputy Fields. Can you tell us a little bit more about their statements? What did they support (INAUDIBLE)?

LOTT: They - they supported his actions. They - they felt like that he - everything that he did was correct. That he didn't use excessive force. That the student was the one that was combative and that what he did was correct.

QUESTION: Even the physical part?

LOTT: Even the physical part. They - they - they had no problem with the physical part from the - those two other adults in the room. And one student in the room, also, who videoed it, had no problems with it. But again, I'm the one that had problems with it. I'm the one that counts when it comes to his employment. I have problems with it. He didn't follow our policy. So I have a problem with that. So I deal with that. We listened to them, we took their statements, what they saw. But, again, I have to make the decision, is he someone that I want representing me, wearing my badge and going out here and carrying out the duties. And my determination was no on that and that's why he was terminated today.

QUESTION: Did you know him personally? Was this a tough decision for you?

LOTT: I have 900 employee, and pretty much know every single one of them. That's one of the things that I make - that's very important to me is that I do know all of my people very personally. Is it difficult? It was the right thing to do. Is it something I enjoy? Definitely not. But that's part of my job as the sheriff. That is my responsibility. That's what people elect me to do is to make the hard decisions, and I made that decision today. To me it wasn't a hard decision. It was a decision that was very evident, that I needed to make, and I make it. QUESTION: Sheriff, you said that this was a learning situation, or you

hoped it would be a learning situation. What have you personally learned from this experience?

LOTT: The positive that I've learned is that this community can stand tall and that we can work together and that we won't allow an incident like this to tear us apart. That - that's - that's probably one of the biggest thing that I learned is that all the work and time and effort that we've been putting in to build a relationship with the community for all these years, it showed. It showed. It showed having a Citizens Advisory Council as being a very positive thing. And I've been criticized a great deal within the law enforcement community for having a Citizens Advisory Council. You know, for years we're the only ones that had it and other agencies criticized us for having citizens come in and see what we do and have a voice in what we say. That's totally wrong to me. We work for the people, and there's nothing we should hide from our citizens. And that's why we have a Citizens Advisory Council.

[12:30:12] So I - what I've learned is that the hard work and