A Bluffton officer shattered her window and pulled her out of her car. Now she’s suing

Note: Claraleanna Lockett settled her lawsuit against the Bluffton Police Department for $20,000 on December 29, 2019, according to a signed agreement obtained through public records request from the Town of Bluffton.

A Beaufort County woman is suing the Bluffton Police Department and one of its officers, claiming he pulled her over without probable cause, shattered her driver’s side window and pulled her from the car into the roadway while her 2-year-old watched from the backseat, according to a court document.

The suit was filed in the Court of Common Pleas for the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit on Sept. 10, according to the public index.

The Aug. 5, 2017, incident began when Officer Baker Odom — who is still employed by the department— pulled Claraleanna Lockett over for a traffic stop on 9th Avenue, the lawsuit says.

Odom told Lockett she was pulled over because she almost hit another car when she made a right turn, the suit says.

He approached Lockett’s window, which was already partially up,” according to the suit, and “seconds later, Defendant Odom pulled (Lockett’s) window to the point of breaking it and causing the shattered glass to hit (Lockett) and her minor child.”

Then Odom grabbed Lockett’s hands and “violently pulled her out of the car and threw her like a rag doll on the ground where the shattered glass laid,” which injured Lockett both physically and psychologically, the suit says.

“Defendant Odom then forcefully put (Lockett) into handcuffs with complete, total, and reckless disregard for her dignity, safety, and overall being” and Odom did not have probable cause to believe Lockett was committing or had committed a crime and she was arrested and imprisoned “without probable cause or legal justification,” the suit says.

Odom faced an internal investigation after the incident and the department found no wrongdoing, former interim chief Scott Chandler told The Island Packet in May.

What Odom did was in accordance with the Bluffton Police Department’s policy and practice, according to the lawsuit, thus the department “encourages, and is the moving force behind Defendant Odom’s objectively unreasonable use of force against (Lockett) by hiring and retaining unqualified officers, and by failing to adequately train, supervise, and control its officers.”

By not adequately investigating and disciplining officers who have used excessive force, the department “manifests a complete, total, and reckless disregard for the rights of its citizens,” the lawsuit says.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges Odom and the Bluffton Police violated state law by depriving Lockett of at least five of her constitutional rights:

▪ The right to be free from unreasonable and illegal searches and seizures

▪ The right to be free from excessive and unreasonable force

▪ The right to be free from unlawful force

▪ The right to be free of unlawful, reckless, wanton, and conscience shocking deadly and/or excessive force

▪ The right to be free from deprivation of liberty and injury without substantive due process and state created/enhanced danger

Bluffton town attorney Terry Finger declined to comment Thursday afternoon, citing ongoing litigation.

Odom wrote in the incident report that he smelled marijuana coming from the inside of Lockett’s car before he broke the window. In the dashcam footage, Odom did not tell Lockett he smelled marijuana nor did he ask her about it prior to shattering the window.

Odom wrote in his report he tried to prevent Lockett from rolling the window up “due to Lockett’s erratic driving and ... her initial willingness to have her window down and then suddenly attempting to cut off contact ....”

That, he said in the report, gave him probable cause to search the vehicle. Odom also said he was concerned for the safety of the child inside the car.

Lockett was charged with reckless driving, resisting arrest, and possession of marijuana after Odom searched her vehicle and found less than half a gram of marijuana in a small, black, plastic bottle inside a diaper bag on the front passenger floorboard.

She spent the night in the Beaufort County Detention Center.

This story was originally published September 20, 2018 at 5:19 PM.