SC police chief sues city, boss after suspension over ‘hit job’ police assessment

BENNETTSVILLE, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – If the tension between Bennettsville’s city hall and the city’s top law enforcer wasn’t tight before, it is now. Last week, Chief Kevin Miller filed a lawsuit against the city administrator and city leaders, accusing the administrator of targeting him to force the chief out of his job.

It was no secret that former Mayor Carolyn Prince, who was in office when the city hired Administrator William Simon Jr., wasn’t a fan of her police chief. Prince’s dislike for Miller was documented in a police assessment published by city hall in February.

“It is widely known that the mayor does not support the chief of police,” said Stephen Campbell, an assessor with Legal and Liability Risk Management, a risk assessment firm the city paid $22,500 to issue an opinion on the department’s policies and practices. LLRMI compiled a 46-page report and delivered it to the city in February.

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The report misspelled the former mayor’s name, writing “Mayor Caroline Prince.”

“During the interview, she affirmed that widely held belief herself,” Campbell wrote, continuing to describe the former mayor’s feelings toward the chief. Prince didn’t think Miller had “the experience” to be the chief of the Bennettsville PD.

“She has not spoken to the Chief in nearly four years,” Campbell wrote in his report.

Prince was defeated as mayor in November 2023. Prince would not agree to schedule an interview with us or to provide a statement for this report.

Simon also declined our interview request, and no other member of the council responded to our request to interview them about the chief’s suspension and lawsuit.

The city redacted multiple pages and names of four former officers who gave statements to the assessor, which are included in the report.

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“There appears to be little support for the chief of police. A frequent concern was low morale and lack of leadership,” Campbell wrote.

However, we spoke with two former BPD officers: Bob Hale and Dozier Rhames. Both men said the assessment mischaracterized their interviews and that their statements weren’t meant to be as harsh as the report detailed.

The chief is “…vindictive, egotistical, and a narcissist,” Rhames is quoted in the assessment, saying he left “solely because of Chief Miller.”

BPD-On-Site-Assessment_RedactedDownload

Rhames said he “is adamant” he never called the chief vindictive, “I don’t remember using those exact words, but I won’t say I didn’t,” Rhames told QCN’s Chief Investigative Reporter Jody Barr during a May 24 phone call. “I’m adamant that I didn’t say it; if I did say it, I stand corrected.

Rhames, who left BPD in 2023, is now a captain with the McColl Police Department and is currently on administrative leave pending the outcome of a S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigation into a use-of-force complaint against him from McColl. Rhames said he expects the state investigation to soon end and he’ll be back to work.

Rhames said he stands behind his comments to the assessor that Miller fostered a “toxic work environment,” but that Chief Miller wasn’t his only reason for leaving BPD. Miller, he said, promised Rhames a K-9 handler position that would allow him to earn 17.5 hours of overtime each week, but the chief never kept that promise, according to Rhames.

Despite his belief that BPD was a toxic work environment, Rhames filed an application to return to the agency in January, a few months after his interview with the outside assessor.

Bob Hale also left BPD in 2023 and took over as chief of the McColl PD, where he remains today. “I left because of the bad culture created by Chief Miller. Chief Miller created a cesspool of a work environment,” Hale told the assessor.

Hale told QCN in a phone call on May 21 that he wouldn’t “explicitly rule out” returning to BPD to work under Chief Miller. “I’ve told several people that if circumstances were different, I’d go back,” Hale said his decision to leave BPD wasn’t all on the chief.

“I can’t put that all on the chief. It was a position where I could be a chief, get training and make some connections. It did weigh on my decision, but I can’t put it all on the chief,” Hale said in the call. Hale said he stands behind his statement on the work environment at BPD, as well as his belief that Chief Miller is “arrogant.”

In January, just a few months after giving those statements to the assessor, Hale texted Chief Miller, asking for the number of open positions at BPD. Miller, who would not see the officers’ statements in the assessor’s report for another month, said he asked Hale who wanted to come back.

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Hale told QCN he was asking the question to find positions for the three other officers who left BPD with him when he took over the McColl PD. Miller said Hale also asked for a job for himself, something Hale denied in the call with Barr.

“They [the city] shouldn’t have leaked out the names. It makes it seem like I hell hated Kevin Miller, and that’s not the case. It comes across extremely personal and that’s not what I wanted to convey,” Hale told Barr about the assessment.

That assessment led to Chief Kevin Miller losing a week’s pay in March. City records show Administrator Simon sent Miller a copy of the assessment on Feb. 16, writing in the internal memorandum that he wanted to use the assessor’s opinion for good, “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to make improvements,” Simon wrote.

The memo included a list of next steps, which included meetings between Miller and Simon. Miller told Barr that those meetings never happened and that the administrator told him in person that the assessment wouldn’t be used against him.

On the order of city hall, acting Assistant Chief Sammy Crosland went to Miller’s home on March 4, 2024, and confiscated Miller’s gun and badge. Miller was locked out of his own department from March 4 until March 12, 2024.

But the chief believes a Queen City News investigation that aired the night of that assessment email, his refusal to write a reference letter for Simon’s fraternity brother, and a series of other events led to the administrator’s decision to use the assessment against him. That decision has led to Kevin J. Miller v. The City of Bennettsville and William Simon Jr.

This video report contains the chief’s story and the evidence he believes shows he was a target for standing up and speaking out.

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