STATE CLOSES CRIMINAL CASE ON SCHOOL RAID

McMaster cites lack of intent in rejecting charges

Of The Post and Courier Staff S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster said
Friday that while police officers created a "dangerous tinderbox situation"
when they rushed into the hallway of Berkeley County's largest high school
Nov. 5 with guns drawn, such tactics were not illegal. McMaster, South
Carolina's top prosecutor, announced he will not pursue charges against
anyone involved in the controversial drug search at Stratford High School
and declared the state's case closed.

"There is no evidence of any degree of criminal intent on behalf of the
police officers or school personnel.

Thus a criminal prosecution would not be appropriate," he said. "Probable
cause existed to conduct a search, and the motive involved was to stop drug
activity in the school -- a legitimate, important and lawful motive and
purpose." McMaster said the officers carried out standard procedures for
other drug busts, which were "grossly inappropriate" in a school. "Such raid
tactics are well suited for a crack house but not a schoolhouse," he said.
"This is an example of a good plan in the wrong place." McMaster's decision
came seven months after Solicitor Ralph Hoisington referred the case to his
office, citing a conflict of interest in deciding whether to press charges
against Goose Creek police. Before reaching his conclusion, McMaster said he
thoroughly reviewed 900 pages of information collected by the State Law
Enforcement Division and videotape of the raid recorded by a Goose Creek
officer and five security cameras in the school. "While we are certainly
pleased ... I assure you that we will not abandon our continued
self-evaluation of this event, nor will we abandon our prior and significant
efforts to resolve the civil lawsuits arising out of these events," Goose
Creek Mayor Michael Heitzler said in a statement. Goose Creek officers
planned the drug sweep with former Principal George McCrackin after watching
four days of school surveillance tapes that indicated marijuana sales around
a hallway bathroom and a network of student lookouts. McCrackin did not know
police would draw their weapons. Records show that in a meeting just before
the search, Lt. David Soderberg told the officers that "where there are
drugs, there are guns, so have your weapons out."When McCrackin gave the
signal about 6:45 a.m., 15 officers left their hiding places and entered the
main hallway, ordering 130 students to the floor.

Officers handcuffed 18 students with plastic ties. School officials searched
17 book bags to which a drug dog reacted.

They found no drugs, and officers made no arrests. In the confusion of that
morning, officers could have mistaken something as simple as a "bang" from a
door slamming or book dropping as a gunshot and "set in motion a deadly
flash of action and reaction," McMaster said. "The danger of unholstering
firearms in a school far exceeds the good intention," he said. "The incident
displays poor judgment but no criminal intent." He said the charges he
considered for police and/or school officials included assault, misconduct
in office, kidnapping, and pointing and presenting a firearm.

Those require proof of malice. He said he also considered criminal civil
charges since most of the students involved were black.

He said evidence showed that happened because the bus that arrived at that
hour, including the one that carried the student who officials suspected of
selling drugs, came from mostly black neighborhoods, not because anyone
targeted a specific race. Of the 130 students, 91 were black, 36 were white,
two were Hispanic and one was Asian, records show. Less than 25 percent of
the school's total population is black. Lonnie Randolph Jr., president of
the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
expressed the displeasure of his organization in a written statement after
McMaster's announcement. "There are two sacred institutions in our society
- -- the church house and the schoolhouse. Today the Attorney General has
announced and condoned as legal the invasion of one of these sacred places
- -- the schoolhouse in Goose Creek. "Mr. McMaster shamed himself and his
office in his 'condemnation' of this indefensible police action, while at
the same time demonstrating to us his belief that the rights of students
should be readily expendable." Louis Smith, parent of a daughter in the
school during the raid, echoed Randolph's sentiments. "South Carolina has a
long history of covering up injustices that have happened to blacks in this
state.

What do I expect?" McMaster "said it was a mistake of judgment.

To me, most crimes are a mistake of judgment," Smith said. Hoisington said
he is comfortable with McMaster's decision. "I didn't see any malice or
intent to do anything but try to make sure the school was safe and that kids
weren't breaking the law," he said. "It was just the absolutely worst way to
go about it." Berkeley County School Superintendent Chester Floyd said the
search tactics were regrettable. "I am heartened by the fact that the
attorney general verified what we have said from our first public
statement," he said. "That is, the intentions were pure." No one involved in
the case seemed surprised by McMaster's announcement. Lawyers representing
students in a federal lawsuit said it makes their case easier because people
subpoenaed to answer questions can't simply cite their Fifth Amendment right
not to incriminate themselves. "This now frees police officers up to be able
to talk," attorney Gregg Meyers said. "They would've been concerned to give
their version for fear it would be used against them. "What was supposed to
happen, if there was no drug deal, the principal would pull a fire alarm and
everybody would disappear and no one would know they were there.

But McCrackin gave the signal," Meyers said. Police "were relying on what
the school described they would see. ... It's still wrong, but police have a
story to tell the school district is not going to want to hear." Depositions
will begin next month.

The lawyers plan to question teachers first. Twenty-three teachers were
involved in the search, McMaster said. Denyse Williams, executive director
of the state's American Civil Liberties Union chapter, said McMaster's
decision did not affect her belief that students' constitutional rights were
violated.

Unlike a criminal case, the civil case does not require proof beyond a
reasonable doubt, she said. The ACLU sued on behalf of 20 students.

The case was combined in March with another suit filed for 18 students.

Court-ordered mediation sessions ended in May. Lawyers for the students said
one party refused to back down. "The Goose Creek officers and officials are
the ones who led the efforts to push this matter to early mediation,"
Heitzler said. "The attorney general's announcement will not change or
lessen our resolve." Nathaniel Ody, parent of two sons listed in the
lawsuit, was disappointed but not surprised by the decision. His sons
"wanted to see some justice done on their part," he said. "I hate to explain
it to them that's part of life." He said he blamed the district more than
the police. "The district doesn't want to do anything but appease parents
and make sure everything goes away," he said. After months of protests,
Floyd announced in January that McCrackin had stepped down voluntarily after
20 years as principal to work in the district office. The district formed a
committee of county residents to examine district policies.

The school board has approved new and much more detailed guidelines for how
schools should conduct drug searches. Smith called the district's actions
"too little too late." He said the district should have had better
guidelines before the raid happened.

He is calling for Floyd's resignation and the reassignment of the assistant
principals involved in the drug search. "I believe McCrackin was trying to
do his job. I don't believe he received good directions from the top. He had
no guidelines on how to conduct the raid," Smith said. Hoisington said he
had never "heard of anything close to" what occurred at Stratford. Given the
attention and notoriety the case received, "I doubt there will be anything
close to it happening again," he said. Eric Holland, a spokesman for the
U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division, confirmed Friday that the
agency is investigating the Stratford case. He said he could not discuss
details of the probe or predict when it will be completed. Staff writers
Allison Bruce and Glenn Smith contributed to this report.