Uncovered: ‘You’re in Aiken County now’: Pattern of warrantless bus searches on I-20 emerges – The Sumter Item

At 2:07 a.m. June 19, 2018, an Aiken County Sheriff's Office deputy pulled over a commercial bus traveling east on Interstate 20 for allegedly crossing over the center line. Within three minutes, two more deputies had arrived and a police dog was searching two dozen passengers' bags.

Deputy Daniel Puckett, who stopped the bus, would later admit he didn't know whether the bus driver or any passengers were engaged in any criminal activity. Yet deputies used a knife to slice open and search a Maryland man's suitcase - conducting what a judge would later rule as an unconstitutional search.

Puckett and his colleagues, Deputy Robert Rodriguez and Lt. Michael Goodwin, told the man he was not free to leave and questioned him without reading him his rights, a violation of sheriff's office regulations.

Deputies then threatened to arrest another passenger for public disorderly conduct simply for questioning the legality of the officers' actions, court records show.

The traffic stop yielded 27 pounds of marijuana, 12,000 ecstasy pills and one arrest - as well as a court case revealing a troubling pattern of nonconsensual, warrantless drug investigations, an Uncovered investigation by the Aiken Standard found.

Reports of a dozen similar incidents emerged during legal proceedings in South Carolina's 2nd Circuit. Puckett, a long-serving K-9 officer, also testified to previously stopping and searching around 30 commercial buses for minor traffic violations.

On Dec. 16, 2021, 2nd Circuit Judge Clifton Newman tossed out the case after finding that deputies lacked probable cause to stop the bus and search its passengers. Though drugs were found, he ruled deputies had violated the passengers' civil rights in the process.

Furthermore, video from the incident appeared to contradict the deputy's stated reason for pulling over the bus in the first place.

The ruling ended the case, but hard questions linger about tactics employed by Aiken County deputies in combating drug-running along the interstate. Deputies appear to have used minor traffic violations as a pretense for conducting wholesale searches with little or no probable cause.

Allen Chaney, director of legal advocacy at ACLU of South Carolina, said seizing a multi-passenger vehicle in this manner is problematic from a civil rights standpoint.

"Pulling over a bus for a traffic violation doesn't give you license to then detain that bus for an hour and then start searching through bags," Chaney said.

On April 20, a similar search was conducted on a university bus carrying mainly Black athletes through Liberty County in Georgia, making national news and drawing complaints about racial profiling. Six white deputies pulled over the bus on Interstate 95 for an alleged traffic violation and searched through the Delaware State University women's lacrosse team's bags in an effort to find drugs. Nothing illegal was discovered in the bags, and deputies did not issue a ticket for the alleged traffic violation.

It remains unclear when and why Aiken County deputies began targeting commercial buses along the interstate, whether improper searches played a role in other stops and what factor race may have played in these incidents. Reports indicate all passengers charged in the bus stops were Black; the deputies, predominantly white.

These questions prompted an Aiken Standard investigation into the Aiken County Sheriff's Office's handling and oversight of the traffic stops.

The newspaper filed several Freedom of Information Act requests to access dashcam footage, examined hundreds of legal documents and conducted multiple interviews to determine the extent and reasons behind the questionable searches.

Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt, a publicly elected official, declined multiple interview requests from the newspaper regarding the case and pattern of warrantless searches.

The Aiken Standard's investigation into the department's overreach is part of a collaboration with The Post and Courier's Uncovered project, which aims to expose misconduct and questionable government actions across South Carolina. The Aiken Standard is among 18 news outlets partnering on Uncovered, including The Sumter Item.

A pattern of crossing lines

Interstate 20 winds through northern Aiken County on its heavily traveled path between Atlanta and Columbia. Thousands of vehicles travel along the route, but one spot in particular has caught the eye of Aiken County sheriff's deputies.

Mile marker 35 is probably not a familiar guidepost to most people, but that's where the state operates a weigh station for large commercial vehicles - and it's become a popular fishing hole for deputies looking to make drug busts.

During an evidentiary hearing in the 2018 bus stop case, the defense asked Deputy Daniel Puckett how many times he had pulled over a commercial bus traveling through the state in the early morning hours.

"I've probably stopped about 20 or 30 buses," Puckett responded, according to a court transcript obtained by the Aiken Standard.

The newspaper obtained copies of 11 more incident reports from the sheriff's office involving drug seizures on commercial buses that were generated from 2014 to 2021. It is unclear how many more buses were pulled over and how many people's belongings were searched without result during that period. That's because incident reports are only generated when there is a drug seizure or arrest, according to Capt. Eric Abdullah, public information officer for the Aiken County Sheriff's Office.

The reports do not identify the bus companies involved in the stops because the sheriff's office does not document company names, according to Abdullah.

Officials refused to provide additional details about the bus operators or the routes they were on. It remains unclear where the buses departed from or where they were going.

Of the 11 additional incident reports, which were generated by four deputies, including Puckett, eight cited the reason for the traffic stop being lane violations - similar to the 2018 bus stop.

The amount of drugs seized in the additional reports ranged from several pounds of marijuana and piles of pills to just a few grams of marijuana.

The six reports involving Puckett and his K-9, Roxy, detail traffic stops and patrol checks on commercial buses in the early morning hours from approximately 1 a.m. to 2:30 a.m., with many occurring at the same mile marker.

"I believe that's where the officers have been pulling over larger vehicles so they can get those vehicles off the roadway for safety," Abdullah said.

It is unclear if Puckett followed the vehicles until they reached the landmark, or if he was parked at the weigh station waiting for commercial buses to pass by.

The Aiken County Sheriff's Office does not have an oversight policy related to traffic stop patterns, according to Abdullah.

"There's no red flags because the officer out there is working off of information that's being shared," he said.

It is unclear what kind of information is being shared, or by whom.

Puckett and the two other deputies that responded as back-up during the 2018 bus stop, Rodriguez and Goodwin, were not reprimanded for their actions during the traffic stop despite the judge's findings, according to Abdullah. No internal affairs investigations have been conducted.

Chaney, of the ACLU, said that when a sheriff's office fails to handle these types of matters in a transparent manner and hold deputies accountable for their actions, misconduct can fester in the department.

"It's in everybody's self-interest to make sure that nobody goes down," he said. "Without meaningful policy changes in the legislature or local government, that lack of transparency will allow misconduct to go unnoticed and unpunished."

Puckett began his law enforcement career with the Richmond County (Georgia) Sheriff's Office in July 2001, according to an officer profile obtained from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council. He bounced between that agency and another sheriff's office before landing a job with the Aiken County Sheriff's Office on Aug. 15, 2014. There was no indication of any misconduct or issues with his employment, according to a report obtained from the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy. He is still currently employed by the Aiken County Sheriff's Office.

Rodriguez is no longer employed by the Aiken County Sheriff's Office; he resigned on Sept. 5, 2019, according to the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy.

Goodwin, who responded as back-up during the 2018 bus stop and was the approving officer on five of Puckett's incident reports, was still employed by the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, as of April 26, 2022.

Similar stops

The other five incident reports involving drug seizures on commercial buses were generated by other Aiken County deputies.

The stops occurred at different mile markers along I-20 in the early morning hours.

Deputies conducted one stop because "the bus shook the patrol car very hard," three more because the drivers allegedly crossed over the center line and another because the bus allegedly had a headlight out. Puckett and Roxy responded as backup in one of the cases.

While the reports generally read similarly to Puckett's, one report generated on July 7, 2018, states the bus driver "was agitated" and told police "he was told by (the Department of Transportation) and his boss not to stop the bus," according to the report.

All of the bus drivers pulled over and suspects charged in the 12 stops were Black. It is unclear if race played a role in the stops.

These sorts of encounters are known in police circles as "pretext" or "investigatory" stops. Officers use a minor violation to stop and question someone they think might be involved in a more serious crime. Law enforcement officials say these stops are an important crime fighting tool, but critics contend they are an overly aggressive use of police powers that tend to disproportionately impact people of color.

Data provided to the state by the Aiken County Sheriff's Office shows that deputies conducted 3,407 traffic stops between January 2018 and January 2019 that did not result in an arrest or a citation. Though Black people make up 25 percent of the county's population, according to the U.S. Census, they accounted for 44 percent of the people stopped by deputies in those encounters.

Eugene White, president of the Aiken County Branch of the NAACP, said the balance between public safety and public trust is delicate.

"Whenever one of those parts of the equation becomes unbalanced, that makes the whole community unstable," White said. "Law enforcement professionals have the ability to take one's freedom. If we see that certain deputies continue to be the ones that are making these stops, then it's incumbent upon this leadership to put a stop to that."

White said there needs to be standardized bias and profiling training, as well as independent oversight.

"I think citizens review boards are an excellent way to do that," White said.

The city of Aiken established a Citizens Review Board in 2016 in response to a lawsuit alleging that an Aiken County man and woman were subjected to an illegal roadside cavity search during a traffic stop in October 2014.

The board reviews cases within the Aiken Department of Public Safety. The Aiken County Sheriff's Office and the North Augusta Department of Public safety do not have citizen review boards.

Hunt, who was elected sheriff of Aiken County in 2003, declined to speak with the Aiken Standard about the incidents despite receiving multiple requests.

Motion to suppress

On Jan. 3, 2019, Puckett testified at a preliminary hearing for the Maryland man who was charged following the 2018 bus stop.

Puckett explained that he pulled over the bus because "the driver hit the line a couple times driving down the interstate," according to a court transcript.

Rodriguez and Goodwin arrived as back-up and removed the driver from the bus while Puckett's dog, Roxy, sniffed the outside of the luggage compartment, according to an incident report.

Puckett said he decided to issue a warning for the lane violation because the driver didn't seem impaired, according to the court transcript.

Goodwin testified that the purpose of the stop had effectively ended once Puckett had him write a warning. But officers stuck around to see what Roxy might find in the luggage area, according to the transcript.

This statement served as proof that the stop was prolonged, and, therefore, unconstitutional, according to Judge Clifton Newman.

Chaney said the scope and duration of a traffic stop has to be related to the justification for the stop itself.

"If you pulled someone over for not using a turn signal, you can't detain them for 30 minutes looking for other things," he said. "The scope of the stop has to be related to the reasonable suspicion you had to justify the seizure in the first place."

Deputies did not tell the bus driver he was free to leave before conducting the sniff search.

Puckett's K-9 alerted to drugs and the deputies began searching all of the bags in the luggage compartment, including bags that were located outside of the area the dog indicated, according to the transcript. During the hearing, Puckett testified that the dog did not sniff each individual bag because it would have taken longer.

Two suitcases containing drugs were located in the bus during the search. One contained 27 pounds of marijuana. The other, a locked suitcase, contained approximately 12,000 ecstasy pills and a prescription bottle with the Maryland man's name on it, according to the transcript.

Neither of the suitcases were claimed by passengers. When questioned by deputies, the Maryland man said the suitcase containing ecstasy was his, but he indicated that he did not put a lock on it and the bag was loaded onto the bus by someone in Atlanta, according to the transcript. A key was not found in the defendant's possession or on the bus.

The Maryland man was arrested and charged with trafficking ecstasy.

Following the preliminary hearing, the defendant's attorney filed a motion to prevent the drugs from being used as evidence against his client, alleging they were the product of an unreasonable search. He also accused deputies of extracting incriminating statements from the man without a lawyer present.

At a Dec. 16 hearing, prosecutor Jacqueline Charbonneau disputed the defense's arguments. She maintained there was probable cause to search the defendant's suitcase without a warrant because he did not claim the drugs inside the bag.

The state conceded that the defendant's statements after being handcuffed were involuntary and that deputies did not inform him he had the right to remain silent or the right to an attorney. However, the prosecution argued the defendant's statements prior to being handcuffed were voluntary.

After reviewing sheriff's office videos of the incident, Newman found the deputies did not have probable cause to stop the bus and were conducting a warrantless drug investigation that constituted an unreasonable invasion of privacy.

He noted that the search occurred after Puckett had already decided to issue a warning and that there were "no indicators of suspicious activity present" to support the search.

The judge cited these factors in granting the defendant's motion and tossing out the case.

"Deputy Puckett's testimony is inconsistent with the video recording because it fails to show the bus strike any line on the road," according to the judge's order.

The Aiken Standard obtained a copy of the deputies' dashcam footage through a FOIA request, and the footage did not show the bus traveling over the center line.

The suppression order also mentions audio from passengers heard on the deputies' bodycam footage, which FOIA does not require the sheriff's office to release to the media.

"One police officer threatened to arrest a passenger on the bus for public disorderly conduct simply because the passenger stated that the officer's actions were unlawful (after the officer had requested identification from all passengers prior to confirmation of any illegal activity) ..." according to the order.

The passenger is quoted saying, "Illegal search and seizure," to which an officer responded, "Call it what you want," "You want to go with me," "You're in Aiken County now," and "We ain't out to get nobody that don't need to be got."

It is unclear which deputy made the statements to the passenger.

The court said it is clear by the deputies' actions and questioning that they deviated from the traffic mission and were conducting a drug investigation, according to the order.

The Aiken Standard reached out to the defendant's attorney multiple times in hopes of interviewing the man at the center of the case. The attorney said his client was hesitant and did not wish to be identified or interviewed.

Reaction to ruling

Capt. Eric Abdullah, the sheriff's office PIO, said drug smuggling is a known problem on the interstate. He said commercial buses are attractive to smugglers because they are less regulated than other methods of transportation.

"You don't go through TSA to get on the bus," Abdullah said. "Your luggage is not searched, you're not searched and your property is not being X-rayed. There have been times we've found passengers with firearms on a bus ... so you can easily get on a bus carrying a large quantity of illegal narcotics."

Second Circuit Solicitor Bill Weeks had a similar take. He said he doesn't agree with the judge's ruling and maintains "there was sufficient legal basis for the search."

The prosecution relied on a previous case, United States v. Hernandez, to support the stop and search, the court found. In that case, an officer who conducted stops as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration trafficking task force stopped a bus operated by a company that transported Hispanic passengers traveling throughout the United States and Mexico.

The two cases, however, had significant differences, the judge found. The Hernandez ruling doesn't say whether the officer was routinely pulling over buses on the same route for minor traffic violations, as Puckett had done. Puckett didn't indicate the bus was coming from a known drug hub, nor did he have any indications of suspicious activity beyond the traffic infraction, the judge stated.

Knowing drugs are transported on the interstate, and that buses could be carrying drugs, is not probable cause to stop a vehicle, according to Seth W. Stoughton, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina and former police officer.

"That's useful, that's certainly part of the analysis - but it's entirely speculative," Stoughton said, adding that the courts require officers to have specific information about the precise people or vehicles involved.

Allen Chaney, of the ACLU, agreed. He said a hunch doesn't meet the threshold for justifying a stop under the Fourth Amendment.

"The fact that people traveling by bus don't have to go through TSA is not proof that a crime is, has or is about to be committed," he said. "That's not a reasonable search or seizure, and that's exactly what the Fourth Amendment prohibits."

Abdullah said the sheriff's office will learn from the incident and incorporate those lessons into future training, but he challenged the notion that the case was a disappointment because it didn't yield a conviction. The search still kept dangerous drugs off the streets, he said.

"A little bit over (12,000) units of ecstasy and 27 pounds of marijuana were seized - the defendant is not getting that stuff back," he said. "So that's (12,000) pills that were going to go into a community somewhere along that line where that bus was going to stop, and we just took that poison off the street."

Chaney said that stance overlooks all of the unwarranted searches that fail to yield drugs or evidence of a crime. Those searches most often go unchallenged and remain outside the public's view because they don't enter the criminal justice system, he said.

"In cases where drugs aren't found, there's no incentive for citizens to bring claims that their constitutional rights were violated," he said. "They might file a complaint with the local police department, but it gets filed in the trash can."

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Uncovered: 'You're in Aiken County now': Pattern of warrantless bus searches on I-20 emerges - The Sumter Item