Editor’s Note: Sandy Hodson’s 14-part investigation into how justice is administered in the Brunswick Judicial District continues today with Part 10. This story looks into an officer-involved shooting case that led the GBI to change its rules about investigating such matters, one in which a new DA drops charges against law enforcement personnel. Earlier installments of the series can be found elsewhere in The Augusta Press website. Series stories will be published on Sundays and Thursdays.
While Guy Heinze Jr. sat in jail awaiting trial on June 18, 2010, Caroline Small, 35, drove off when a Glynn County Police Department officer walked up to her car and asked her what she was doing. At least three police vehicles joined the pursuit of a woman in a vehicle with four flat tires that never topped 25 mph during the “chase.”
When stopped 18 minutes later, Small’s vehicle was locked in by a telephone pole within a foot of her back bumper, a police vehicle stopped nose-to-nose in front of her with a second police vehicle to its left, a state patrol car nearly touching the driver’s side backdoor and a residential yard on the other side.
Golden Isles Injustice
Part 10
Trooper Jonathon Malone jumped out of his vehicle with his weapon drawn. He holstered it when he saw Small was trapped. He headed for Small’s driver’s side door with the intention of pulling her out when he saw Glynn County Police Department’s Robert Corey Sasser and Todd Simpson pointing their weapons at Small. And him.
When deposed, Malone said no one was in harm’s way when Sasser and Simpson fired at Small.
Without issuing a verbal warning, Sasser and Simpson fired eight times. They claimed they feared for their lives because there was space, a hole between the vehicles that Small’s could have used to escape. Her vehicle was aimed right at them, they both said.
But Small couldn’t have been aiming right at them because the shots fired by Simpson and Sasser were fired at an angle from the right, according to an expert witness, Jeffrey Noble who retired after 28 years with the Irvine (California) Police Department, leaving as deputy chief and with a law degree.
Noble also noted what was left out of many accounts of Small’s shooting. When Deputy Chief Scott Trautz got to the scene, he had Officer Mark Neu move Simpson’s vehicle which was to the immediate left of Sasser’s car. Once it was moved, the “hole” Small supposedly could have driven through was created.
Noble faulted the local law enforcement for not reporting that Sasser had a history of dishonesty on the job. It was, Noble said, exculpatory evidence. The law required that it be disclosed in every criminal case Sasser was involved in. In Noble’s opinion, Sasser should have been fired because an officer who lacks credibility can’t testify in court, and if he cannot do that, he can’t do his job.
Two months after Smalls was killed, the governor appointed Jackie Johnson as district attorney. She fired the acting district attorney, the one who publicly said he would take a manslaughter case against Sasser and Simpson to the grand jury. She also kicked Assistant District Attorney Keith Higgins to the curb.
In August 2011, Johnson took the Small case to the grand jury. She told the jurors there was no indictment to consider; one of the grand jurors later told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. But there was one. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent in charge of the investigation had prepared one. She closed her file based on the lack of action by the grand jury.
Because the police department’s leadership insisted on getting their fingerprints all over the Small investigation, the GBI director changed the agency’s rules on investigating officer-involved shooting for local law enforcement agencies. The GBI will only investigate if the local agency stepped completely away, the director told the Atlanta newspaper.
Even if Johnson had obtained an indictment against the Sasser or Simpson, their GBI statements could not have been used as evidence. No one, including officers, can be forced to give evidence against himself. But during an internal law enforcement investigation, an officer must answer questions. That’s why the two investigations are kept separate. When deposed, Glynn County’s Lt. Tommy Tindale admitted he knew that the investigations were supposed to be separate when he and other Glynn County police officers went into the room where GBI agents were questioning Sasser and Simpson and other witnesses.
On Sept. 30, 2014, U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Georgia Judge Lisa Wood ruled against Small’s children in the wrongful death lawsuit filed on their behalf against Glynn County, Sasser and Simpson. While her Small’s death was avoidable, the officers’ decision to shoot was based on their belief their lives were endangered, she found.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
