NO CHARGES BROUGHT IN SCHOOL RAID

Attorney Aeneral Criticizes Police Tactics

COLUMBIA - South Carolina's attorney general said Friday that it was
"highly inappropriate" for police to draw guns during a drug sweep at
a Charleston-area high school last year but that the action did not
warrant charges. "It was clear that there was no criminal intent, no
evidence of a crime having been committed by the police officers or
the school personnel," Attorney General Henry McMaster told The
Associated Press. Still, McMaster was highly critical of the way Goose
Creek police conducted the Nov. 5 raid at Stratford High School.
Surveillance video showed officers with guns drawn ordering 100
students to the floor as a barking drug dog sniffed them for drugs.

No drugs were found, and no arrests were made. "The tactics were good
tactics for a crack house, a drug den or a methamphetamine lab, but
highly inappropriate tactics for a schoolhouse," the attorney general
said. "Any kind of loud bang, noise, slamming door or dropped book or
some other unforeseen thing could have resulted in someone firing a
pistol." The case drew national attention when the tapes were played
on CBS' "60 Minutes II," and Jesse Jackson led a protest march amid
accusations that blacks were unfairly targeted in the raid. Seventeen
Stratford students sued in December, alleging Goose Creek police and
school officials terrorized them during the raid. Later, the American
Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of 20 other students, alleging
violations of constitutional protections against unlawful search and
seizure. McMaster said there was probable cause to conduct the search
after officers observed what appeared to be a student-run drug
operation in the four days leading up to the sweep. "It was an
appropriate search," he said. "The one part of the plan that's highly
inappropriate is the presence of unholstered firearms.

That, again under the circumstances, is a question of judgment and is
not evidence of a crime." McMaster began investigating the sweep after
local prosecutor Ralph Hoisington asked the attorney general's office
to intervene. The state's chief prosecutor said his office interviewed
more than 40 people and reviewed police reports and two State Law
Enforcement Division investigations. McMaster said six prosecutors
combed law books searching for potential charges including false
imprisonment and pointing a gun, misconduct in office and criminal
violation of civil rights. Goose Creek Mayor Michael Heitzler said he
saw no reason for the police department to punish the 14 officers who
took part in the raid.