Officer charged in deadly Georgetown Co. shooting had imperfect record in law enforcement - wpde.com

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — A Hemingway police officer, who is charged with voluntary manslaughter in a deadly shooting Sunday in Georgetown County, didn't have the perfect record in her 30 years of law enforcement, according to training records and other documents.

Cassandra Dollard appeared before a judge Thursday morning for a bond hearing, which was set at $150,000.

According to records from the SC Justice Academy, Dollard started at the Williamsburg County Detention Center in 1992 and then worked over the years with Johnsonville Police, Lake City Police, S.C. Dept. of Public Safety (SCDPS) as a State Transport police officer, the St. Stephen Police Dept. and then with the Hemingway Police Dept.

She started with Hemingway on Sept. 30, 2021, the records said.

According to her record, she was fired from SCDPS as a state transport officer on Sept. 11, 2014, for violating agency policy not involving misconduct.

The record stated that she violated agency policy for “willful violation of rules, regulations, policy or procedure; improper conduct/conduct unbecoming a state employee and negligence in the performance of duty.”

She was also terminated from her job with Johnsonville Police on April 5, 2002, for “poor performance," the records said.

Dollard’s other transfers to other departments were all routine.

She sued the State Public Safety Department in 2017 on allegations of racial and gender discrimination, as well as retaliation.

The lawsuit said Dollard fired her service weapon in November of 2014 while on duty to try and protect herself from two dogs. The suit said she was fired 20 days later following an investigation.

SCDPS responded to the suit by providing a memorandum of law in support of their motion for summary judgment.

A summary judgment asks the court to decide a case without a trial.

In that memorandum, the public safety department shared details from an incident in July of 2014 involving a stranded motorist. A complaint was lodged against Dollard, according to the memo, because she "had become frustrated and visibly angry during the episode – to the extent that she struck the motorist’s vehicle with her hand."

According to the memo, an investigation of the incident found that Dollard "had not been wearing her body armor during the encounter" and that she was also observed to say, “What in the hell is wrong with this crazy woman” when referring to the stranded motorist.

The memo said that investigation led investigators to become aware of another incident on April 22, 2014. It said Dollard conducted a stop on an empty wood-chip hauler for a flat-tire violation.

The memo said Dollard "was determined to have breached a number of STP procedures during this encounter, including a failure to call in the stop as required by STP, escorting the vehicle to a repair site in lieu of issuing a citation, failing to inspect the truck, failing to place an out-of-service sticker on the vehicle, and failing to document the encounter in any fashion."

SCDPS said in the memorandum that Dollard's actions were in "violation of established procedure."

Investigators reviewed other in-camera tapes to determine if these two incidents were representative of Dollard's performance.

The memo said, "Reviewing additional tapes led to discovery of additional discrepancies, which in turn led to additional investigation."

In late August of 2014, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) determined Dollard was "displaying a consistent failure to follow STP procedure in a number of particulars: failing to call in traffic stops to communications; failing to document out-of-service drivers and vehicles; and failing to wear her issued body armor. In addition to these repetitive violations of her training and established procedure, OPR’s investigations identified other specific incidents of failure to follow established procedure and the requirements of her employment, including failing to make the proper charge against a motorist, working outside of her assigned zone without prior approval, using her vehicle’s blue lights simply to clear traffic for convenience’s sake rather than as part of a law enforcement activity, and failing to show up for court on two separate occasions in May 2014."

The department offered more information in the shooting incident in May of 2014 when Dollard fired her service weapon at two dogs, according to the memorandum.

It said Dollard advised her direct supervisor that she had discharged her duty weapon at two threatening dogs while out jogging that morning at approximately 7 a.m.

Dollard believed she had struck one of the dogs in the leg with one of her shots, the memo said. "After shooting the dog she returned to her home," the memo added.

It said Dollard was aware of SCDPS policy on the discharge of a duty weapon, but despite having a telephone conference with her direct supervisor at approximately 8:30 a.m., she did not inform anyone in her chain of command of the weapon discharge until approximately 1 p.m. that afternoon.

The department said their "policy requires officers to immediately inform their chain of command upon a discharge of a department-issued firearm."

An OPR investigation determined Dollard had "furnished no credible explanation for the six-hour lag in the time between the discharge of her duty weapon and her first mention of it to her supervisors."

Court documents show the lawsuit was settled and dismissed in 2018.

Some question how Dollard could be hired at other departments when she was fired from two agencies.

South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy Director Jackie Swindler said officers can move from department to department if they weren't terminated for misconduct.

Dollard's terminations stated policy violations, but not misconduct.

Still, lawyers for Robert Langley, the man Dollard is accused of shooting and killing, said with her record, she shouldn't have been able to constantly get hired at different departments.

“It wasn’t just a failure that night. But this was a failure of the entire system, the criminal justice system, your honor. We have identified and we know that the officer has been fired or removed from two separate jobs. That she’s had in law enforcement, and that night was a culmination of failures. Not only just with her part but on the state's part," said Attorney Bakari Sellers.

Dollard was released from the Georgetown County Detention Center at 11:38 a.m. Thursday, according to booking records.

She's scheduled to appear in court again in April.

source: https://wpde.com/news/local/officer-charged-in-deadly-georgetown-co-shooting-had-imperfect-record-in-law-enforcement

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