Former city officer pleads guilty to misdemeanor

By Cindy Landrum  

MARCH 30, 2010 12:58 p.m. (0)

The acting U.S. attorney said Tuesday he expects additional criminal charges to be filed in the federal investigation into the abuse of the homeless by some former Greenville police officers.

Moments after former city police officer Matthew Scott Jowers pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor civil rights violation for slamming a handcuffed homeless man into a squad car hard enough to make a dent and later wrapped his hands around the man’s neck, acting U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said he expected additional charges to be filed.

Jowers was one of four Greenville police officers to resign after an internal investigation and Chief Terri Wolfing contacted the State Law Enforcement Division.

No other officers have been charged yet in the case, but McDonald said he does expect additional charges to be filed.

“This involved a small number of officers,” McDonald said, adding investigators did not find evidence that abuse of the homeless was rampant within the department.

McDonald said investigators had to find discern which allegations were fact and which were rumor.

“We identified prankish activities that were certainly unprofessional but did not rise to federal civil rights violations,” McDonald said.

But a Sept. 13 incident involving Jowers did rise to a criminal level, he said.

According to McDonald, a homeless man walking the streets passed Jowers and some other officers.

The officers suspected the man was drunk, McDonald said.

The man, who initially gave the officers a false name, was handcuffed and taken to a patrol car.

Jowers told authorities the man tried to pull away from him so he slammed him into the car with enough force to dent the car before putting the man in the back seat, McDonald told U.S. Magistrate William Cato during the guilty plea.

The man was yelling and being disruptive so an unidentified officer opened the back door and tried to strike him, McDonald said. At the same time, Jowers opened the other door, wrapped his hands against the homeless man’s neck and told the man he (Jowers) was in control.

.Jowers admitted his use of force was excessive under the circumstances, McDonald said.

Ashore said his client never struck the man.

When the homeless man was taken to the law enforcement center, he had blood on his face.

McDonald did not release the homeless man’s identity, but said Greenville police helped federal investigators find him.

Before Cato accepted Jowers’ plea, he asked whether he had anything to say.

“I’m just sorry all this happened, your honor,” the former officer said.

Jowers, 25, who was on the force for three years, faces one year in prison.

He will be sentenced following the completion of a    pre-sentencing report.

His attorney, Beattie Ashmore, asked Cato the pre-sentencing report be expedited.

He said he will ask for a probationary sentence. McDonald said the plea agreement contains a stipulation that prosecutors will ask for a sentence within the guidelines but will not oppose a lighter sentence if the judge imposes one.

“”That this was a misdemeanor plea and not a felony is indicative of the overall facts of the case,” Ashmore said. “A lot of the rumors we heard over the past year were just that – rumors.”

Ashmore said Jowers was proud to serve on the police department but he will not return to law enforcement.

Ashmore would not comment when asked if the incident was part of a larger effort to control the homeless in the city.

McDonald said while he was in town for the guilty plea, he would meet with agents, investigators and lawyers with the federal Civil Rights Division to discuss the latest developments in the investigation.

“This is the first plea and by saying that, I anticipate there will be other charges brought in the case,” he said. “This is the first step in resolving the investigation.”

Many of the allegations in the case were anecdotal and investigators had decipher fact from rumor, he said.

“We identified behavior that was certainly unprofessional and in some cases criminal,” McDonald said. “The conduct we’re talking about here is absolutely unbecoming of a law enforcement officer, or anyone, really.”