Bluffton cop barely disciplined after shattered windows, dangerous pursuits. Why?
Seconds after Cpl. Baker Odom ended a 15-minute car chase that reached speeds of 113 mph, the Bluffton Police officer rushed toward the driver sitting inside his car.
Odom, his gun in his left hand and a baton in the other, bludgeoned the car window 14 times in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, 2019. Shards of glass exploded into the air.
After shattering the driver’s window, Odom yanked the unlocked door handle, and grabbed the unarmed 20-year-old Hilton Head Island man’s shirt and pulled him straight to the ground. The man’s offense? Fleeing recklessly when Odom tried to pull him over for speeding.
Now, a review of Odom’s time with the Bluffton Police is raising questions as to whether the officer’s conduct is endangering the public — and whether officials are disciplining officers who break department policies. The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette found:
- The January 2019 arrest marks the second time in 17 months Odom has shattered a car window — a move experts call unsafe and tactically unsound — during what began as a routine traffic stop. The first incident resulted in a lawsuit alleging excessive use-of-force and a settlement.
- Odom’s file indicates that his decision to use force on the job has been examined at least seven times during his seven-year stint with Bluffton, including one of the broken window incidents. Each time, Odom’s supervisors have cleared the officer of wrongdoing.
- January’s chase was the eighth time Odom has engaged in a high-speed pursuit for a minor infraction — seeming violations of department policy and behavior that past and present town police chiefs say they do not support. Odom’s has received minor reprimands on four occasions for violating pursuit policy.
Between January 2017 and November 2019, Odom arrested 12 people whose breathalyzer tests showed blood alcohol concentration of zero or well under the legal limit and charged them with DUI. Of those 12 cases, records show eight were dropped or reduced and three are pending.
Two of the cases dropped were public controversies: one involved former May River High School band director Shelby Ledbetter, whose breath test recorded a blood alcohol concentration of .04 — half the legal limit. The second was that of the 19-year-old son of Bluffton real estate agent Nickey Maxey, who blew zero. The department stands behind the arrests, but disbanded the DUI unit Odom led and reassigned him to regular patrol duty in November, a decision officials say is unrelated to a specific officer or arrest.
No one has been injured in Odom’s chases for minor offenses, but departments across the country have crafted policies banning them because of public safety concerns. Annually, pursuits kill more people than floods, tornadoes, lightning and hurricanes combined, reported the Washington Post based on a 2007 study.
Odom’s history coupled with the department’s seeming support of his conduct — two promotions and only minor reprimands — could also increase the town’s liability should tragedy occur, as opposing lawyers could try to use the officer’s past conduct to negotiate bigger civil settlements or create doubt in criminal cases.
The newspapers recently obtained footage of the January 2019 window-breaking incident and asked Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina law professor and former Tallahassee police officer to review it. Odom’s actions were “inappropriate, tactically unsound and counterproductive,” Stoughton said. The citizen in that incident, who faces multiple criminal charges, has not filed a complaint or attempted to sue the Town of Bluffton.
Still, the incident creates “some potential liability issues for the city,” said Stoughton.
The first time Odom shattered a window in August 2017 resulted in a lawsuit, which alleged excessive use of force during the arrest and little accountability afterward. The Town of Bluffton recently reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount with the driver, Claraleanna Lockett, formerly of Beaufort.
Odom broke her car window with his bare hands seconds into an August 2017 traffic stop after she crossed the center line on Goethe Road, spraying glass over her 2-year-old son in the back seat, according to the suit.
“I wasn’t resisting. I felt he came to my car in an unprofessional manner. Then he broke my window and was yelling at me. I didn’t feel safe,” Lockett previously told the newspapers. She called 911 during the arrest.
Odom did not respond to interview requests sent to his Town of Bluffton email and submitted through his supervisors.
Police chiefs stand behind Odom
Asked about patterns in Odom’s conduct, Bluffton Police Chief Chris Chapmond said it is difficult to “second guess” his officers’ actions and that his role is to ensure they are properly trained. Since taking office in August 2018, Chapmond has accepted resignations from two officers after incidents of alleged misconduct.
“I can’t correct what has already happened,” said Chapmond, who is Bluffton’s third police chief in three years. Since Odom’s January arrest, he has mandated de-escalation and tactical training for his entire department.
Chapmond said there were “minor” tactical and professional issues with the January arrest and window-breaking, but cited no specific concerns about Odom’s actions.
Interim Police Chief Scott Chandler stood behind Odom after he shattered Lockett’s window in August 2017.
During that arrest, Odom followed Lockett’s red Chevrolet Cobalt, initiated a traffic stop for crossing the center line on a turn and, seconds later, shattered the Cobalt’s driver’s side window by pulling it outward with his hands when Lockett attempted to roll it up.
“He smelled marijuana and saw a small child in the backseat,” Chandler told the newspapers in May 2018. “So basically, he was trying to keep Ms. Lockett from driving away and keep the child safe and the community safe.”
Marvin Pendarvis, Lockett’s lawyer, said his client came to a “confidential settlement to what we believe was excessive force,” noting that previous use-of-force incidents involving Odom played a role in the settlement negotiations.
Lockett’s arrest took place before Chapmond became Bluffton’s police chief. Asked if he stood by his officer today, Chapmond first declined to discuss the arrest, citing pending litigation. Told the case indeed had been settled, Chapmond still declined comment, as did Deputy Town Manager Scott Marshall and Town Attorney Terry Finger.
Town officials have not disclosed the amount of damages awarded in the settlement, which will be paid from the South Carolina Insurance Reserve Fund. It was the second public settlement reached by the Town of Bluffton last year related to the police department, coming after the July resolution of a wrongful arrest suit brought by Chelsea Lynn Howard in 2018. That arrest involved another Bluffton officer, Sgt. George Wetzel, who is still with the department.
After speeding violations, a high-speed chase
At 3:13 a.m. on January 2, 2019, Odom observed a black Chevrolet Malibu sedan traveling 46 mph in a 30-mph zone, according to a report he later filed. The Chevy cut through a lawn and fled after Odom turned on his lights.
“Clear channel, dispatch. They’re running,” said Odom into his radio, his engine revving as he accelerated to pursue.
The moment was a critical one.
“Vehicle pursuits are like dynamite — they are inherently dangerous,” said Stoughton, the University of South Carolina law professor. About a third of pursuits nationally result in property damage, injury or death, he said.
Current Bluffton Police Department policy dictates that an officer may not pursue someone who has committed a nonviolent traffic offense, unless the reason for the pursuit outweighs the threat to public safety it will cause.
Former Bluffton Police Chief Joey Reynolds wrote in a 2015 memo to his officers, including Odom, that the pursuit policy — then even more restrictive — “means not catching every single bad guy, but rather, maintaining a feeling we are out there keeping the streets as safe as possible without causing a more dangerous environment for the residents of Bluffton.”
Given the risks, “it’s generally inappropriate for officers to pursue for what is a low-level infraction, like speeding,” said Stoughton.
But Odom’s calculation was a different one.
He accelerated behind the car on May River Road. His supervisor on duty, Sgt. Brady Lee, whose responsibility, per department policy, was to “assert control” by immediately acknowledging and monitoring the pursuit, was at the gym, according to body camera audio and squad car video recorded the night the incident.
Lee resigned several months later in March after being arrested by his own department for allegedly assaulting fellow off-duty officers outside a bowling alley. In hindsight, said Chief Chapmond, the input of a supervising officer may have ended the chase.
The driver led Odom and other responding officers on a winding route, accelerating to speeds of 113 mph on U.S. 278 and blowing through two red lights, with Odom close behind.
‘Put your hands behind your back or I’ll break it’
While the chase lasted 15 minutes, the arrest that followed was over in under 60 seconds. And, according to experts, it violated tactical best practices and created “avoidable dangers” for all involved.
After the black Chevy became pinned between two squad cars, Odom exited his vehicle, gun drawn. He shouted three times for the driver to “show me your hands,” warning the other officers around the car to “watch (for) crossfire.”
Fifteen seconds after the cars came to a halt, Odom began striking the Chevy’s window with his baton.
“You can just see things escalating. Individuals get hurt and police get hurt when things escalate,” said Susan Dunn, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina after reviewing the footage at the Packet and Gazette’s request.
Police training generally directs officers not to approach a car in the immediate aftermath of a chase, unless circumstances require it, Stoughton said.
In an interview, Chief Chapmond agreed.
“You control that situation. There’s no reason to rush it at that point,” Chapmond said, referring to his officer’s approach to the car.
“By running up on the car, particularly in the immediate aftermath of a pursuit, officers increase the likelihood that they will engage in misconduct,” Stoughton said. “Their blood is up, their adrenaline is surging and they run up on the car, unable to regulate their own behavior, which increases the chances that they will use excessive force.”
Stoughton would have rather seen Odom and other officers take positions of relative safety and direct the driver to exit the car over a loudspeaker. Chapmond echoed this in an interview with the newspapers.
Bluffton Police Officer Andrew Maisano, who kept his gun trained on the driver of the Chevy during the course of the arrest, later wrote in his report that the driver “kept reaching below the dash for something. Which I feared could be a firearm.”
“If someone in the car has a firearm, running up on the car just offers them a clear and accessible target — and that’s totally avoidable,” said Stoughton. The driver was unarmed.
After beating the car 14 times, Odom opened the door and dragged the driver to the ground. “Put your hands behind your back, or I’ll break it,” he said, before cuffing the man and taking him into custody.
The driver of the Chevy was later charged with reckless driving, failing to stop for a blue light, use of a license plate registered to another vehicle, a seatbelt violation, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. The charges are pending in Beaufort County General Sessions Court.
Stoughton is not ready to say that the Bluffton Police Department should discipline Odom for the January arrest.
“I think it is unrealistic and unfair to hold officers to an expectation of perfect behavior under all circumstances,” he said.
“However, when you have someone who is repeatedly or consistently making the same errors, that’s a problem that the agency is under obligation to address. And if they don’t address it, they are setting the stage for a future disaster.”
A pattern of high-speed chases for traffic offenses
Beyond the two broken windows, the Packet and Gazette’s review of Odom’s time with the Bluffton Police found repeated high-speed vehicle pursuits after minor traffic and other misdemeanor offenses.
“We really only want our officers pursuing on those most egregious offenses,” said Chapmond, questioned about his department’s pursuit policy.
But in seven years, including more than a year under Chapmond, Odom has not received anything more than minor reprimands for initiating dangerous pursuits — even though department policy says discipline shall progress to suspension or dismissal when “a written reprimand has not resulted in satisfactory corrective action.”
On four occasions, superiors have determined Odom’s car chases raised concerns — once in 2014, once in 2018 and twice last year. (Between 2012 — when Odom joined Bluffton Police — and 2015, the department’s pursuit policy placed fewer restrictions on an officer’s decision to initiate a chase.)
Capt. Joe Babkiewicz and Lt. Joe George reviewed footage of the January 2019 chase with Odom and Lee soon after it took place, noting issues with the decision to pursue for a minor traffic offense, Odom’s proximity to the suspect’s car during the chase and Lee’s absence.
Chapmond said he wasn’t aware of this incident until months later, in March.
Chapmond also said around that time he implemented a new policy ensuring that all future vehicle pursuit and use of force reviews receive the chief’s approval.
But two months later, Odom again violated pursuit policy.
In May, Odom pursued a vehicle after observing it cross the center lane on Okatie Highway just after midnight. The vehicle, a white Chevrolet Camaro, fled towards the Jasper County line, reaching speeds of 120 mph, according to the report Odom filed later.
The chase was terminated when it was determined that continuing it threatened the safety of everyone involved, but Odom continued to follow the vehicle outside his jurisdiction, requesting permission to re-engage and following the Camaro against traffic up an off-ramp for Interstate 95.
“Odom mirrored the actions of the suspect vehicle placing himself and others in harm’s way,” wrote his superiors. Afterwards, he was issued a written reprimand and made to submit a memo outlining his understanding of pursuit policy to his chain of command.
It was the most severe response to a policy violation documented in seven years of personnel files. Odom has pursued suspect vehicles on seven other occasions for minor violations and has received three other minor “counseling” sessions from superiors about pursuit policy concerns, according to the documents.
“We’re holding our officers accountable,” said Chapmond after questions about Odom’s disciplinary record and pursuits.
Chapmond said he is focused on the present.
“Things are different now than they were a year and a half ago and definitely different than they were three years ago,” he said.
On his 2019 employee performance review, conducted in November, Odom met or exceeded expectations in all 15 “performance attributes,” including “judgment,” “professional demeanor” and “quality of work.”
One note was included in the evaluation: Odom “has had some issues with decision making recently,” wrote the reviewer, Sgt. John DeStasio. “He has since been talked to about his decision making.”
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we reported this story
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reviewed 325 pages of personnel files and more than nine hours of arrest footage related to Baker Odom’s seven years with the Bluffton Police Department, obtained through public records request. The newspapers found:
Odom has faced 21 internal reviews, which are triggered every time an officer is involved in a use of force or vehicle pursuit. In 19 reviews, Odom’s actions were a primary focus.
Twelve reviews found no violation of policy.
In six cases, Odom received verbal or written “counseling” — the lowest level of officer discipline — due to concerns raised by superiors. The written record of this discipline amounts to several paragraphs in total.
In two cases, Odom was issued a written reprimand.
Only one arrest resulted in a formal “disciplinary action report.” In it, Odom was faulted for failing “to get a written statement or conduct a thorough investigation” for an October 2019 DUI arrest that was quickly dismissed in court.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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