North Charleston Releases Body Camera Footage From Incident Involving Councilman

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The city of North Charleston, South Carolina released body-worn camera footage on Thursday (April 4, 2024) from one of its officers who was involved in an incident with a sitting city councilman earlier this year.

The incident – which our outlet reported on two weeks ago – involved noise complaints lodged on the evening of February 24, 2024 against The Montague Room, an “upscale restaurant/ lounge” in the city with ties to sitting councilman Jerome Heyward.

In the aftermath of our reporting on the incident, we submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for any body-worn camera footage in the department’s possession related to the noise complaint. As body-worn camera footage is inexplicably exempt from South Carolina’s FOIA law, however, the department was under no obligation to provide it to us.

Nonetheless, in the interests of transparency, North Charleston police chief Greg Gomes decided to make the footage public – posting it to social media in lieu of immediately responding to our FOIA.

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“Our officer was found to have followed all department policies and procedures,” a statement accompanying the release of the footage noted. “We emphasize that this release is an exceptional action and does not indicate a shift in our standard policy regarding the release of body camera footage. This decision underscores our commitment to transparency and public trust, reflecting our intent to provide clear insights into this matter while upholding the integrity of our operations.”

The footage – which runs for approximately fourteen minutes – depicts an inebriated Heyward interacting with the responding officer, James Francis Ryan. It confirms, to the letter, details documented in the incident report (.pdf) prepared by Ryan in the aftermath of the encounter.

At the 1:50 mark of the video, Heyward – attired in a knit sweater depicting a tuxedo-clad teddy bear and identifying himself as the “boss” of the Montague Room – told the officer he would handle the noise. He failed to do so, however.

At the 3:26 mark of the clip, the officer returned to the scene and asked Heyward if the two of them could speak privately away from the other patrons.

“You told me you were going to handle (this) but the the noise hasn’t changed,” the officer told Heyward.

“Man let me tell you something … I don’t feel like that tonight,” Heyward responded. “The music is not bothering nobody.”

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Heyward quickly became frustrated with the officer, telling him “you do what you gotta do – I ain’t turning my music off, period.”

North Charleston code § 13-126 prohibits “unreasonably loud and disturbing or unnecessary noise” between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.

When Ryan asked Heyward who should be cited for the noise violation, the councilman pointed to himself and said brusquely “you write me the ticket.” At this point, though, he promptly telephoned North Charleston deputy chief Karen Cordray, Ryan’s superior officer.

“You know, I don’t play no games,” Heyward said as he scrolled through his phone in search of Cordray’s number. “I’m gonna settle this once and for all.”

A few seconds later, Heyward handed the phone to the officer.

“Here’s your chief,” he said.

In the ensuing two-minute conversation, the officer told his superior “we’ve got a legit noise complaint over here,” adding that “Mr. Heyward has already said he’s not turning his music off.”

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Cordray’s comments to Ryan were not captured on the body-worn camera footage, however a subsequent conversation with a female patron who identified herself as an attorney was recorded. During that conversation, the attorney – who identified herself as Denise – asked Ryan several questions about the origin of the complaint and seemed to imply police were singling out the Montague Room.

At the 12:40 mark of the video, Heyward attempted to summon the officer from his conversation by using a derogatory term.

“Hey boy,” he called out. “Hey boy.”

“Did he call me boy?” Ryan asked.

“No, I don’t think he did,” Denise responded.

As noted in our prior coverage, Ryan’s report referenced a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in which use of the word “boy” – absent any modifying language – could be consider “a racial epithet depending on the context, inflection, tone of voice, local custom and historical usage.”

“If his intent was not racist, it was certainly to be demeaning,” Ryan noted in his report.

Heyward is no stranger to scandal. This disc jockey drama occurred just ten days after multiple media outlets reported on a scandal in North Charleston related to the awarding of community gun violence prevention grants. According to our sources, Heyward has “exposure” to that scandal, although they declined to elaborate on specifics.

As for North Charleston’s decision to release this footage, while I commend the agency for its decision the fact remains: Providing public records to the public should never be an “exceptional action,” it should be the default setting. Unfortunately for true transparency advocates, South Carolina’s body-worn camera law remains a sad case of “transparency in name only.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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