COLUMBIA --- A member of Gov. Mark Sanford's security detail was reassigned at the governor's request after a video emerged showing the state trooper repeatedly hitting a suspect in the face, Mr. Sanford's spokesman said Tuesday.
The January 2006 video -- one of three released Monday by South Carolina's Department of Public Safety -- shows Lance Cpl. E.J. Burton hitting a man in the face after a pursuit and stop. The man was handcuffed and questioned but later released, officials said.
Lance Cpl. Burton, ordered to undergo counseling and later assigned to Mr. Sanford's detail, was reassigned Monday at Mr. Sanford's request, the governor's spokesman, Joel Sawyer, said.
Mr. Sawyer said Mr. Sanford does not choose his security detail, to which officers are assigned based on recommendations.
Lance Cpl. Burton, who joined the Highway Patrol in July 1998, was put on the governor's detail in February 2007. He has returned to the Columbia-based troop where he previously worked, Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden said.
The State Law Enforcement Division declined to give specifics on Mr. Sanford's detail, including how many officers are on it.
Highway Patrol Col. Russell Roark and Public Safety Director James Schweitzer resigned earlier this year after a video surfaced showing a trooper use a racial slur while chasing a black suspect. Mr. Sanford said that trooper should have been fired.
Mr. Sawyer declined to comment on the severity of Lance Cpl. Burton's punishment.
"We don't know if the punishment was adequate, and it's not our role to decide that," Mr. Sawyer wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
But, Mr. Sawyer said, state agencies should review procedures for evaluating candidates for the governor's security detail "so that this and future governors don't face the prospect of being confronted with allegations like this after an individual has been assigned to the First Family."
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