Pubdate: Fri, 02 Jul 2004
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2004 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Bruce Smith, Associated Press

PROBE OF DRUG RAID ON SCHOOL COMPLETED

S.C. attorney general to announce findings

CHARLESTON - After a seven-month probe into the way police with guns drawn
conducted a drug sweep at a suburban high school, South Carolina's attorney
general plans to announce today whether charges will be filed. Surveillance
videotapes captured the Nov. 5 raid at Stratford High School in which Goose
Creek police officers ordered students to the floor and used a dog to search
them. No drugs were found and no arrests were made in the sweep that
resulted in national attention and two civil lawsuits. A spokesman for
Attorney General Henry McMaster would not comment Thursday on why the
investigation took so long. 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. The Attorney General's Office began investigating at the
request of Charleston-area solicitor Ralph Hoisington. "While I am confident
the goals of the Goose Creek Police Department were appropriate, the actual
methods employed by certain officers were ill-advised," Hoisington said in
December when announced he was referring the case to McMaster. Fourteen
officers and a dog took part in the sweep in Goose Creek, a bedroom
community of about 29,000 about 20 miles northwest of Charleston. 
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