Former USCS officers allege in lawsuit they were threatened

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The suit also alleges that campus police investigators illegally obtained phone records that showed calls made and received by students living in the apartments on campus known as the Commons.

Michael S. White and Michael L. Smith, both of Duncan, filed the suit in federal court.

The suit names the University of South Carolina-Spartanburg and the University of South Carolina-Columbia as defendants. Representatives from both schools declined to comment Wednesday.

White alleges in the suit that he was hired in October 1999 and immediately noticed that officers frequently used racial slurs and that white people and black people accused of similar crimes were treated differently.

White says he filed a five-page statement with the universities in June that prompted an investigation. Shortly after that, the suit alleges, he and Smith were subject to threats of bodily harm in an attempt to silence them.

The suit alleges that during a training session, supervisors pointed their weapons at the plaintiffs while cleaning their guns. During the same session, a sergeant fired his service weapon into the police department floor, two feet from Smith and about 15 feet from White, the suit alleges.

White says in the suit that he repeatedly found listening devices in the ceiling of the department's common room. The suit says he contacted the FBI after microphones were discovered in two patrol car doors.

The suit says that the plaintiffs seized a portion of the students' phone records that the department's investigators had obtained illegally. The suit alleges that the location of the phone records was changed after the defendants intercepted a phone conversation between the plaintiffs.

The plantiffs allege that they told a supervisor from the Columbia office about the treatment they sustained but he repeatedly refused to act.

They were both forced out by November of 2000, the suit alleges.

Later that year, their former supervisors attempted to hire a private investigator to take audio and video surveillance of them, the suit alleges.

The suit alleges that they contacted several agencies but all refused to act.

Andy Paras covers crime and courts. He can be reached at 298-4220.