The South Carolina police officer who was sacked for violently dragging a young black girl across a classroom over use of a cell phone will not face criminal charges.
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In a 12-page report, Solicitor Dan Johnson said he found no probable cause to charge Ben Fields. “Her objections to the officer’s actions do not violate the statute and can not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have ‘willfully or unncesarily.interfere [d] with or to disturb in any way or in any place the students or teachers of.[the] school”. Fields was sacked from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in October after students at Spring Valley High School recorded him flipping a girl to the floor and dragging her across a classroom.
Senior Deputy Fields was sacked from the Richland County Sheriff’s Office after the video surfaced. Fields then gave the student several commands as well, and then forcibly removed her from her desk, then dragged her several feet. He wrapped his forearm around her neck, then flipped her and her desk backwards before dragging her along the classroom floor while keeping her in a tight headlock.
The investigation did not turn up enough evidence to charge the student who recorded the clash, Johnson said.
The student who Fields flipped out of her school desk did disturb the school, he concluded.
Fields had no regrets about his actions, according to his statement in the report.
“I realized that I was going to have to physically remove the student from her seat to effectuate her arrest” after she repeatedly refused to come with him, Fields said.
A U.S. Justice Department review was settled in August, when Richland County agreed to provide intensive training for deputies working in 60 schools on how to de-escalate situations, avoid bias and interact properly with disabled students.
Johnson wrote the he believes the prosecution of the case as such has been “compromised” by the firing of Fields and administration action taken against the teacher before the SLED’s investigation was over.
An attorney hired by Fields after his firing didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment late Friday afternoon.
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Hence, the charges against Kenny were dropped, as were charges against the student who was seen in the video, he added.
