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MONCKS CORNER – In late June, a deputy at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center was arrested on numerous assault and battery and sexual assault charges. Days later, the deputy who reported the abuse was fired. The fired deputy, Aisha Davis, is now suing the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office for wrongful termination and facing her own charges of misconduct and assault.
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' And I asked her who. She proceeded to hand me a sticky note with a phone number on it," Davis told The Post and Courier. Davis didn't recognize the number at first, but when she typed it into her phone realized it was a deputy who she supervised on her day shift, Avery Smith.
He had recently moved to the night shift, she said. Under both South Carolina and federal law , people who learn through their professional positions about sexual misconduct are required to report, it which Davis' attorney Tim Lewis outlined in a letter to Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis (no relation). Failure to report is a misdemeanor at the state level that carries a fine of up to $500 and/or up to six months in prison.
"I informed my lieutenant, and I also informed the major of the jail. It was on a Saturday, so he was not at work. So, I did step out to give him a phone call to let him know what was going on," Davis said.
"He then informed me that he was going to contact our investigations (unit) so that they could come up to the jail to speak to her." Davis escorted the inmate to a room to speak with the investigators and later brought her lawyer to the interview. That, she told The Post and Courier, was the extent of her involvement.
During the SLED investigation into Smith, multiple victims at the jail and several Sheriff's Office employees were interviewed but not Davis, according to her lawsuit. The inmate was released later that day on her own recognizance. SLED charges 3 former Berkeley County Detention Center deputies Smith was charged with one count of first degree sexual misconduct, two counts of misconduct in office, three counts of first degree assault and battery, and five counts of third degree assault and battery, according to a June 27 news release from the State Law Enforcement Division.
Two other deputies were charged with misconduct in office for failing to intervene when Smith committed the assault, with one allegedly joking with Smith about the incident. Just days later, the sheriff fired Davis. According to the lawsuit she filed against the sheriff and his office, she was told that she was a "problem" and would "continue to be a problem in the future.
" The sheriff said this assessment was based on "statements from others" but did not provide specific examples when Davis asked for details. Davis said the final meeting consisted of herself, Sheriff Lewis, Chief Deputy Jeremy Baker, and then-Captain Michael Crumley. "Chief Baker walked in last.
When he sat down, he was like, 'I'm just going to keep it very blunt with you,'" Davis recalled Baker saying. "'You have been a problem. We have statements that you've been a problem for a long time.
We perceive that if we keep you, that you will continue to be a problem, so we have to part ways with you.'" "And it was just kind of 'get up and go on about your way.' And I was escorted out of the building," Davis said.
Davis said that roughly two days before she was fired, an officer under her told her that he heard she was under investigation by internal affairs. When she asked for what, he said misconduct. "So I laughed, because I kind of stay in my own lane.
I really don't do anything. So that didn't move me," she said. "I said, 'Where'd you get that from?' And he told me Sergeant (Mallory) Martin told him.
" Davis admitted that she and Martin did not get along, and her lawsuit alleges that Martin spread rumors about her to colleagues and superiors. Neither Martin nor the sheriff were made available for comment on the lawsuit. Filing suit and filing charges Attorney Tim Lewis sent a letter to the sheriff on July 11 that outline the causes for a potential lawsuit.
The letter specifically mentioned Davis being wrongfully terminated from her job, seemingly for reporting the sexual assault at the jail and that she was defamed by both Martin and Lewis. Several weeks later, Davis first heard she was also under criminal investigation. Around Aug.
20, she received calls from people who worked at the jail. "When I found out, I did let Tim (her attorney) know what was going on, and that's how I heard,” she said. “So originally, they didn't bring SLED in to investigate anyone to my knowledge, until Aug.
18." The warrant affidavits released by SLED state Davis stomped on an inmate's groin multiple times and punched him while he was handcuffed on May 25. Davis said there was much more to the incident than the criminal charges alleged.
"We had to restrain an inmate that was fighting with us after coming from bond court, and in the process of us fighting with him, I was constantly kicked several times in my right knee," she said. Davis said she wasn’t the only officer injured in the struggle. But of the six or seven deputies restraining the inmate on May 25, Davis is the only one who was investigated and charged.
Davis added that she was not the only officer injured in the incident. "I've seen a lot of things that have happened that shouldn't have happened, and in eight years, I've never, ever seen them bring SLED in the building to conduct an investigation on any incident," she said. Lewis, her attorney, clarified that there were hundreds of confrontations with inmates that she had seen involving "forcible contact" when an inmate was resisting.
Davis and her attorney are convinced that the charges only arose because of her civil lawsuit. Davis said that within days of the May 25 incident she spoke with investigators and her major, whom she said told her she “was in the clear.” The incident was captured on video which was reviewed, she said.
On Sept. 19 Davis was booked on the second degree assault and misconduct in office charges − both misdemeanors − at the jail where she once worked. "It was humiliating," she said.
"It was very embarrassing. It brought me to a low point, because never would I have imagined me being on the opposite side." She noted that protocol was not followed when she arrived at the jail to turn herself in.
"Anytime you have an ex-officer coming in, the jail is supposed to be on total lockdown. There's supposed to be no inmate movement whatsoever. The cells up front, the windows should not even be open,” she said.
"When I was placed in cuffs, there were about maybe seven inmate workers outside exactly where I was," Davis added. Davis was release on a personal recognizance bond later that morning. Her criminal defense attorney, Steve Davis (no relation), said that the charges "are not justifiable.
" "I am very confident that she will be exonerated on these charges," he said. Davis believes the criminal charges are a form of intimidation and retaliation for her lawsuit. "I truly believe it's going to come to a point where they're going to say, 'Hey, you drop this, the we'll drop this,'" she said.
The Post and Courier spoke with three people who worked at Hill-Finklea Detention Center during Davis' time there and they also said retribution and retaliatory firings were common if officers brought issues to light. Speaking out meant putting a target on your back, they said. The detention center was a toxic and hostile work environment, they claimed.
Baker, the deputy chief, told The Post and Courier that the Sheriff's Office has yet to be served with the lawsuit but generally does not comment on pending litigation. When asked if employees at the Sheriff's Office are fired without reason, Baker said that "when we terminate someone, there is a reason." When asked for clarification about why Davis was terminated, Baker said that he could not speak to the matter since it was a personnel issue but reiterated that "there was cause.
" Regarding the criminal charges against Davis, Baker said that the allegation was reported and SLED was brought in to conduct an independent investigation. Lewis, her civil attorney, said that whatever happens with the criminal charges, the civil case stands on its merits. "It doesn't matter one way or another for her civil lawsuit whether or not she is exonerated here," he said.
"The fact is that that the Sheriff's Office and Duane Lewis himself wrongfully terminated her no matter what, even if she's guilty of these made-up crimes." At the end of the day, Davis said she wants the Sheriff's Office to be fair in how they treat employees. "I want to let them know that they're wrong and they just can't treat everybody any way just because of their going off emotions and their personal feelings," she said.
"If you're going to treat me this way because of one incident, okay. Go back to all your incidents inside of your jail, and you start there. But don't just single me out.
".
