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Man kicked by state trooper sues
7/23/2008 10:56 PM

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COLUMBIA -- A New York man who was shown on video being repeatedly kicked in the head by a South Carolina state trooper has been hospitalized for mental health issues several times since the 2006 incident, the man's attorney said Wednesday.

Sergio Caridi, of Catskill, N.Y., filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the trooper and state authorities.

Caridi's lawyer, James McBratney, told The Associated Press his client has been hospitalized for treatment of psychological problems since his arrest following a highway chase in May 2006, and suffered "significant physical injuries", including bruising to his face, neck and back and cuts on his face and chronic headaches.

Video from a trooper's dashboard camera showed Cpl. John B. Sawyer kicking Caridi in the head several times after Caridi led troopers and sheriff's deputies on a 30-mile chase on Interstate 95 in a dump truck.

In the lawsuit, filed July 18 in Florence County, Caridi accuses Sawyer of using "brutal and excessive force," violating his civil rights, negligence and emotional distress. Caridi also names the state Department of Public Safety in the lawsuit, accusing the agency of negligence in training and supervising Sawyer.

Hired as a trooper in May 2000, Sawyer was placed on administrative leave after the incident. He resigned several months later, becoming a deputy for the Marion County Sheriff's Department.

A phone message left Wednesday at Sawyer's home was not immediately returned. Agency spokesman Sid Gaulden and an attorney for Sawyer would not talk about the lawsuit.

Caridi was wrong not to stop for police, but that gave Sawyer no excuse to kick him repeatedly, McBratney said.

"Once you capitulate, once you surrender to police, that's the end of it. ... He was completely submissive, and then they came up and kicked the hell out of him," McBratney said. "There was no reason for it. It was just a situation where the trooper just lost it and vented his anger."

Caridi still faces several charges of his own, including failure to stop for police and resisting arrest. He could go to trial on those charges later this year, said McBratney, who also represents Caridi on those charges.

Sawyer is also facing a federal charge of violating Caridi's rights, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Another trooper, Steve Garren, was indicted on the same charge after being caught on video in a separate incident ramming a suspect with his patrol car. Garren is scheduled to appear in federal court on Friday for arraignment on that charge.

Authorities began investigating the Highway Patrol in March after tapes emerged of a trooper using a racial epithet. The chiefs of the Highway Patrol and Department of Public Safety subsequently resigned amid criticism from black lawmakers.

U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins has said the investigation into the Patrol is ongoing.

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