VIDEO RELEASED: SC trooper charged with felony in shooting at traffic stop over seat belt violation

A former S.C. Highway Patrol trooper who stopped a man for an alleged seat belt violation in Columbia and then shot him – without provocation, prosecutors say – was arrested Wednesday and charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.

Former Lance Cpl. Sean Groubert, 31, who was fired from the Highway Patrol after the shooting incident, now faces 20 years in prison if convicted of wrongfully shooting the driver, Levar Jones, 35.

Groubert was booked Wednesday at Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. He was fired from the patrol last Friday.

Wednesday night, in a hearing at the jail, Magistrate Ethel Brewer set Groubert’s bond at $75,000. He was released on bond after the hearing.

Groubert’s lawyer, former 5th Circuit Solicitor Barney Giese, said his client – a 2007 S.C. Trooper of the Year – is innocent and intends to contest the charges.

“We believe the shooting was justified. We look forward to our day in court,” Giese said. He said Groubert has made thousands of traffic stops without incident.

At the hearing, Assistant 5th Circuit Solicitor Joanna McDuffie played a segment of a Highway Patrol dashcam video from Groubert’s car for Brewer.

Todd Rutherford, the lawyer for Jones, viewed the tape segment during the hearing and said he was struck by the inconsistency between Groubert’s actions as caught on the tape, and a statement Groubert gave to authorities after the shooting.

“My overall impression is that Levar Jones is truly a victim in this matter,” Rutherford said. “He simply was trying to get his driver’s license.”

Rutherford, the Democratic minority leader in the S.C. House, continued, “After being shot, he asked the trooper several times, ‘Why did you do that? What did I do? I was trying to get my driver’s license.”

Groubert’s reply on the video was that Jones reached into his car.

But Groubert’s statement, portions of which were read by prosecutor McDuffie, clearly described Jones as being aggressive when in fact Jones was not, Rutherford said.

The video shows that, after the shooting, the trooper asked Jones, “Are you hit?” Jones replies, “I think so, I can’t feel my leg.’”

It was the first time Rutherford, or any member of the public, had viewed the dashcam video. Law enforcement has been reviewing it since the Sept. 4 shooting incident.

“There was nothing aggressive about it,” Rutherford said.

The video shows Groubert pull up behind Jones’ car, and as Jones gets out, leaving the door of his car ajar, Groubert asks for his license.

Jones quickly leans back into the car, and Groubert pulls his weapon and shouts, “Get out of the car!”

Groubert shoots several times as he yells two more times, “Get out of the car!” Jones appears hit by the first shot, raises his hands in the air and stumbles away from the vehicle.

Jones was struck at least once in the hip. He spent time in the hospital and is now out of the hospital recuperating.

The incident has sparked concerns of racial profiling in the state’s African-American community.

Groubert is white; Jones is black. Incidents where white officers who shoot blacks in disputed circumstances have received national publicity in recent years.

However, in the current case, South Carolina law enforcement has moved fast to put to say the facts are not disputed and to put the blame squarely on Groubert.

A warrant in the case released late Wednesday by SLED says that Groubert “did without justification unlawfully shoot Levar Jones ...”

“Audio and visual recordings, as well as written statements obtained indicate the shooting incident was without justification,” the warrant said.

Fifth Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson’s office is prosecuting the case. Johnson is consulting with the U.S. Attorney’s office in the case, according to his press release Wednesday night.

The release said that Johnson made the decision to prosecute after reviewing evidence gathered by SLED.

Rutherford said he had “every confidence the solicitor’s office will do the right thing in this case.”

State Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, said late Wednesday night that bringing the charge against Groubert was appropriate.

“The trooper is no exception to the law,” Neal said.

The charge, which ensures Groubert is tried in a court of law, will go far toward quelling any major anger in the African-American community, Neal said.

“This is a good exercise in how the system can work,” Neal said, praising the work of the Department of Public Saftey, which oversees the Highway Patrol, the State Law Enforcement Division and Solicitor Johnson.

In announcing last week that he was terminating Groubert, Public Safety Director Leroy Smith said the trooper misread that Jones was a threat, used too much force for too long and violated several agency policies.

“This incident occurred in broad daylight. Mr. Groubert had a clear and unobstructed view of Mr. Jones,” Smith said in a statement.

“While Mr. Groubert was within the law to stop Mr. Jones for a safety-belt violation, the force administered in this case was unwarranted, inconsistent with how our troopers are trained and clearly in violation of department policies,” Smith said.

“Mr. Jones exited his vehicle in the convenience store parking lot, and Lance Cpl. Groubert asked for Mr. Jones’ license,” Smith said. “Mr. Jones turned to his vehicle and reached inside. For reasons that only Groubert can articulate at this point, he fired his service weapon multiple times while yelling repeatedly for Mr. Jones to ‘get out of the car.’

“Mr. Jones was not armed and was struck during the incident,” Smith said, adding that Groubert had just finished another traffic stop. The incident happened during afternoon rush-hour traffic along a heavily traveled thoroughfare.

“These violations demonstrate behavior that deviates from (patrol) standards and cannot be tolerated,” the agency director said.

Smith called the shooting of Jones, 35, “an isolated incident.” The director said troopers make 750,000 traffic stops yearly and troopers are “trained to protect the public.”

“The facts of this case are disturbing to me,” he wrote in his statement. “Mr. Groubert reacted to a perceived threat where there was none. The department’s use-of-force policy makes clear that officers shall use ‘only the level of force necessary to accomplish lawful objectives’ and that ‘the use of force must be discontinued when it becomes apparent to the officer that the force is no longer needed.’

“That protocol was not followed in this case,” Smith said.

The patrol has upheld two previous complaints against Groubert, The State newspaper reported last week. Those offenses occurred in 2009 and 2013 and followed internal investigations by the agency. Two additional complaints were dismissed, though the agency was investigating a current one.

Groubert left the Public Safety Department in 2009, before an internal investigation was complete in the 2009 complaint, and therefore no disciplinary action occurred, agency spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli said last week. Groubert returned to the patrol about three years later.

He underwent a counseling session after the 2013 incident because the offense was considered a minor policy violation, she said.

Groubert’s dismissal comes after about seven years as a trooper. He joined the patrol in 2005, went to work as a Richland County sheriff’s deputy in 2009 and rejoined the patrol in 2012, Iacobelli said.

This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 9:25 AM.