Story Archive

Grounds for Arrest

Off-duty Richland County, S.C., sheriff’s deputy Paul Allen Derrick put Brittany Ball, 23, in handcuffs and then banged her head against a table, a police report says. But when a Columbia, S.C., policeman arrived at the bar where Ball had been drinking, he didn’t arrest the woman, he arrested the deputy. According to the police report, the incident had begun when Derrick, 49, who had also been drinking, had approached Ball, a soldier, and she hadn’t returned his interest. They argued, and he fetched his handcuffs from his car. “I said, ‘I’m going to start videoing this, because I think something is about to get out of hand,” said another bar patron, Steven Hughes. According to police, the video captured Derrick saying, “This is how Marines deal with soldiers.” Hughes says the officer “watched maybe the first 30 seconds of it. And when he heard the Marine-Army comment, he said, ‘All right, things just changed. Arrest him ... and release her.” After the sheriff reviewed the arrest and video, he fired Derrick. (AC/WIS Columbia) ...And that is how good cops deal with bad cops.
Original Publication Date: 20 October 2013
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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