Anaysheon Coffey, a South Carolina Black woman, was awarded a $120,000 settlement last month because a white cop with a history of racial profiling barged into her home without a warrant and arrested her on fabricated charges in August 2020.
And the cop who arrested her, Lancaster police officer Peter Beck, was forced to resign in April 2021 after numerous citizens accused him of racial profiling – just over a year after he was forced to resign from the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office for having “zero throttle control.”
But not only was Beck given a $60,000 payout to resign from the Lancaster Police Department, he is now working for the North Charleston Police Department, a South Carolina law enforcement agency with its own history of racial profiling, as Atlanta Black Star reported last month when a group of cops piled on top of a Black boy for selling palmetto roses.
So he is likely continuing his racial profiling style of policing at the expense of taxpayers.
Coffey, meanwhile, spent five years fighting for justice, including two years fighting the criminal charges against her, which were eventually dismissed.
The lawsuit does not state what she had been charged with and there is no record of the charges on South Carolina court websites, but she was only able to file her lawsuit once she was cleared of those criminal charges.
“This resolution sends a powerful message that racial profiling and harassment won’t be tolerated,” Tyler Bailey, Coffey’s attorney, said in a statement, according to WCNC-TV.
But the underlying message is that racial profiling is indeed tolerated within South Carolina law enforcement agencies because not only was he allowed to resign on at least two occasions rather than be fired, his law enforcement certification was never revoked, allowing him to continue working as a cop, potentially placing numerous Black citizens at risk.
“I am outraged that each of you would go on record unanimously supporting a decision that says Black youth as citizens in this community, that Black lives, don’t matter in the Red Rose City,” Reverend Anthony Pelham, a Black pastor who lives in Lancaster, told the city council at the time, according to Queen City News.
“Knowing that you used $60,000 of my taxpayer dollars to pay off an officer that has impacted individuals that look like me outraged me.”
Racial Profiling Complaints
Beck had been a Lancaster police officer for four months when he knocked on Coffey’s door on August 25, 2020, demanding to speak with the father of her child, according to the claim.
After a brief conversation, Defendant Officer Peter Beck asked if he could come inside of Plaintiff’s residence. Plaintiff then informed Officer Peter Beck that he could not come inside because he did not have a warrant.
Notwithstanding Plaintiff informing Defendant Officer Peter Beck that he could not come inside of her residence without a warrant, Officer Peter Beck barged in and began to illegally search the apartment.
After illegally entering and searching Plaintiff’s residence in violation of Plaintiff’s constitutional rights, Plaintiff was wrongfully arrested/detained for alleged criminal offenses.
Defendant Officer Peter Beck’s wrongful arrest of Plaintiff resulted in her being taken jail and sustaining other damages.
The lawsuit states that more than 20 residents attended a Lancaster City Council meeting in February 2021 to complain about Beck’s racial animosity towards Black citizens, including Reverend Pelham, revealing that he had quickly earned a notorious reputation in less than a year working for the Lancaster Police Department.
Arlene Clyburn said Beck has harassed members of her family and has provoked fear in the Black community.
“Pulling people out of their cars, putting them in handcuffs and then you turn around and let them go,” Arlene Clyburn complained to the city council, according to WSOC-TV.
“What’s the point in you pulling them out of their cars? What probable cause do you have?”
Beck was placed on administrative leave in March 2021 and resigned in April 2021 along with the $60,000 payout.
Coffey’s charges were not dismissed until January 2022 but she only learned about the dropped charges in April 2022 through her own research, an indication the city was trying to keep her from filing her lawsuit.
Beck said he comes from a family of cops so he probably learned from an early age he could get away with racial profiling.
“My dad was – he’s a retired cop, my uncle’s a retired cop, my great-grandfather is a retired cop, so it’s kind of in the blood,” he said during a in deposition 2024.
“Zero Throttle Control”
The Lancaster Police Department hired Beck in April 2020 despite warnings from the sheriff’s office that he was a liability, according a defamation lawsuit filed by Beck against the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office in August 2021, which ended up getting dismissed.
The warnings included statements from Lancaster County Sheriff’s Major J.M. Shaw to Lancaster Police Lieutenant Small like, “Beck has zero throttle control and they were unable to control him.”
The court records also state that Shaw told Small that Beck was involved in “a couple of cases that were close to excessive force” and that “the sheriff’s office felt that Pete Beck (was) more of a liability than a benefit.
Major Shaw also said that the sheriff’s office “would be happy to work with the Lancaster Police Department in any joint effort but did not want Pete Beck in the County in any working capacity if hired by the Lancaster Police Department.”
But the Lancaster Police Department hired him anyway in April 2020, a month after he resigned from the sheriff’s office.
Four months later, he forced himself into Coffey’s home without a warrant, resulting in the $120,000 settlement for her as well as the $60,000 payout to make him go away. The starting salary for a Lancaster police officer is $52,000, according to Indeed. He is now making more than $60,000 working for the North Charleston Police Department.
Beck filed his wrongful termination lawsuit against the sheriff’s office five months later, which was dismissed in December 2024 when he was unable to persuade the judge that he had been the victim of defamation.
“As to Plaintiff’s claim for wrongful discharge in violation of South Carolina public policy, the Court finds Plaintiff has failed to produce admissible evidence that his separation from LCSO violated any public policy of the state of South Carolina,” the judge wrote in his dismissal.
“The Court finds that Defendant is immune in this case, and the Court further finds that Plaintiff has failed to establish evidence that would create a genuine issue of material fact that the purported statements made by Major Shaw to LPD’s Lt. Small rise to the level of defamatory statements,” the judge wrote in his dismissal.
Great Job Carlos Miller & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
