The surveillance video of the Sept. 11 Manor incident is difficult to watch – a woman trying to leave the Manor with her baby. A much larger man, a Manor staffer, is holding the door shut, preventing her from leaving. Mayor Sloan Griffin and the Town’s HR director are standing nearby, looking on throughout the lengthy incident, but never coming to the woman’s aid.
The woman is Michelle Layman, the wife of Manor Director Fred Layman. She told The Voice that she went to the Manor to drop off a check for her husband, and that the mayor and Manor staff refused the check. She said they told her she couldn’t leave without taking the check with her.
Whatever the circumstance of the incident, RCSD’s incident report falls way short of what incident reports in South Carolina are supposed to convey.
Aside from the report’s erroneous claim that the victim of the incident is Blythewood Chamber of Commerce, which was not involved, most of the claims in the incident report are weighted against Ms. Layman, who says she never spoke with deputies on scene.
There is also a significantly curious note at the bottom of the report that states:
“This report is for the trespass notice that was issued.”
The details in the incident report build a case for the issuance of the trespass notice to Ms. Layman. The details in the video do not.
Each significant claim in the incident report against Ms. Layman is undermined by the surveillance video.
The report claims:
That deputies were dispatched to the Manor regarding a “civil disturbance.”
Title 16, Chapter 2 of the SC Code of Laws defines a civil disturbance as “a public disturbance involving acts of violence by three or more persons which causes an immediate danger of or results in damage or injury to another person or his property.”
There is no evidence on the surveillance video that there was a civil disturbance.
That Ms. Layman “entered the property without authorization.”
Neither Ms. Layman nor anyone else needs “authorization” to enter the Manor (a public building) during business hours on a day the Manor is open for business.
That, “husband called in stating that his wife was being held hostage by the mayor, which was found to be untrue.”
Webster’s dictionary defines hostage as: “a person seized or held as security for the fulfilment of a condition.” Ms. Layman said there was a condition for her release — that she had to take the check with her.
That “the officials of Blythewood wanted to put [Ms. Layman] on trespass from the property,” …and the trespass notice was issued.
The surveillance video gives no indication that Ms. Layman, while pushing a baby stroller, caused a civil disturbance, entered the property unauthorized or did anything else to deserve a trespass notice.
Trespass notices are serious stuff. They can be expensive and can have other weighty consequences for the recipient. So much so, that it might behoove a deputy to investigate the situation – look at a video, perhaps – before issuing such a notice.
The trespass notice also fails to state the period of time that Ms. Layman is to be trespassed from the property – a requirement of the notice.
In South Carolina an incident report must include details of all offenses investigated by officers. It must also include any follow-up investigations, reports of property recovered, changes in the status of any case, and other similar comments.
Mayor Pro Tem Donald Brock was on scene before Ms. Layman was transported to a local hospital by EMS. He said he told a deputy that he (Brock) would be asking for a copy of the incident report, but that the deputy replied that there would be no incident report.
However, there was one. The Voice was only able to obtain it after requesting it with four emails and two phone calls over the four days immediately following the Sept. 11 incident. The incident report was released to The Voice on Sept. 15.
Town council voted on Sept. 22 to force town hall officials to release the surveillance video of the Sept. 11 Manor incident to the public, and for the town attorney to take incident reports from all town employees who were involved.
While town officials released the video to The Voice and anyone who requested it, Interim Town Administrator Ed Driggers told The Voice that the video would not be posted to any of the Town’s social media sites or on You Tube. Anyone who wants to view the video must bring a storage drive to town hall for the video to be copied on to it.
At town hall, it has been business as usual since the incident, with no internal investigation of the mayor or Manor employees who were visible in the surveillance videos. While council members told The Voice that town hall officials asked RCSD to launch an investigation of Fred Layman on or about Wed., Sept. 26, those same officials made it clear they were not going to call for RCSD to investigate the Sept. 11 Manor incident.
In answer to an email The Voice sent to RCSD on Oct. 6, asking if RCSD is investigating the Sept. 11 Manor incident, RCSD’s Director of Office of Professional Development Maria Yturrie responded on Wed., Oct. 8.
“RCSD is investigating all concerns from citizens and town officials to determine if any criminal violations have occurred. We will not comment further on any issues until our investigation is concluded.”
Let’s trust that the investigation, while slow to materialize, will be more accurate and objective than was the incident report.
