NO CHARGES BROUGHT IN SCHOOL RAID

Attorney Aeneral Criticizes Police Tactics

COLUMBIA - South Carolina's attorney general said Friday that it was "highly inappropriate" for police to draw guns during a drug sweep at a Charleston-area high school last year but that the action did not warrant charges.  "It was clear that there was no criminal intent, no evidence of a crime having been committed by the police officers or the school personnel," Attorney General Henry McMaster told The Associated Press.  Still, McMaster was highly critical of the way Goose Creek police conducted the Nov.  5 raid at Stratford High School.  Surveillance video showed officers with guns drawn ordering 100 students to the floor as a barking drug dog sniffed them for drugs.

No drugs were found, and no arrests were made.  "The tactics were good tactics for a crack house, a drug den or a methamphetamine lab, but highly inappropriate tactics for a schoolhouse," the attorney general said.  "Any kind of loud bang, noise, slamming door or dropped book or some other unforeseen thing could have resulted in someone firing a pistol." The case drew national attention when the tapes were played on CBS' "60 Minutes II," and Jesse Jackson led a protest march amid accusations that blacks were unfairly targeted in the raid.  Seventeen Stratford students sued in December, alleging Goose Creek police and school officials terrorized them during the raid.  Later, the American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of 20 other students, alleging violations of constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure.  McMaster said there was probable cause to conduct the search after officers observed what appeared to be a student-run drug operation in the four days leading up to the sweep.  "It was an appropriate search," he said.  "The one part of the plan that's highly inappropriate is the presence of unholstered firearms.

That, again under the circumstances, is a question of judgment and is not evidence of a crime." McMaster began investigating the sweep after local prosecutor Ralph Hoisington asked the attorney general's office to intervene.  The state's chief prosecutor said his office interviewed more than 40 people and reviewed police reports and two State Law Enforcement Division investigations.  McMaster said six prosecutors combed law books searching for potential charges including false imprisonment and pointing a gun, misconduct in office and criminal violation of civil rights.  Goose Creek Mayor Michael Heitzler said he saw no reason for the police department to punish the 14 officers who took part in the raid.