A white police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man after a South Carolina traffic stop was released from jail on $500,000 bail on Monday (January 4).
Michael Slager, a North Charleston police officer who was fired after the incident, was jailed since his April arrest in the death of Walter Scott, 50.
The fatal shooting was caught on video by a bystander and intensified a national debate on police treatment of minorities.
A bearded Slager appeared in court on Monday where Judge Clifton Newman set bail at $500,000 and scheduled Slager’s trial for Oct. 31. Charleston County Sheriff’s Office said Slager was released from jail.
Newman granted bail after noting that Slager’s trial would not begin until late this year. The delay was caused by prosecutors preparing for the trial of Dylann Roof, accused of killing nine people in a church shooting in Charleston in June, the Post and Courier newspaper reported.
Slager will be under house arrest, said Justin Bamberg, an attorney for the Scott family who reached a wrongful death and civil rights settlement with North Charleston and its police department late last year.
“All criminal defendants do have a constitutional right to appear before the judge and request bond. Today is just another step in the criminal justice process. But we still fully believe, and the family believes, that at the end of the day justice will prevail,” said Bamberg.
Bamberg said that while Scott’s family was not happy that Slager had gotten bond, his supporters should express their feelings peacefully.
“This is just another step in the process and like every process it has to run its course. Doing anything to damage someone’s property or to hurt another innocent individual is not doing anything to help the Scott family. It’s not doing anything that’s going to have an effect on the criminal trial process. The only thing that that can do is land you where officer Slager is right now, which is defending a criminal charge. So just be peaceful as we have been and know that at the end of the day the justice system is going to run its course,” he said.
The judge had denied Slager bail in September, saying that releasing him “would constitute an unreasonable danger to the community.”
Defense attorneys argued that Slager was not a flight risk and had been violently attacked by Scott in a confrontation after Scott fled a routine traffic stop and Slager chased him.
Prosecutors said Scott was trying to get away from Slager, not attack him. They accused the officer of tampering with evidence by retrieving his stun gun from where it had fallen and placing it near Scott’s body. (Reuters)