Former SC police chief behind wrongful Christmas Eve arrest, lawsuit says
The former police chief for the town of South Congaree wrongfully arrested a woman on Christmas Eve and held her in the county’s detention center for days, a recently-filed lawsuit claims.
Chief Steven Jonas, who retired in September from his role leading the rural Lexington County town’s police department after his involvement in a car crash that sent three other people to the hospital, was working as a major for the police department in December 2023. On Christmas Eve that year, he pulled over Indyia Outing for an expired license tag.
In a lawsuit filed Dec. 23 in Lexington County’s common pleas court, an attorney for Outing argued that the small police department and the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department failed to properly train and supervise officers.
The suit is at least the fourth filed this year accusing the sheriff’s department or town police departments in the county of wrongful arrest. A former White Knoll middle school teacher, Brenda Inabinette, sued both Lexington 1 school district and the sheriff’s department earlier this year after she was arrested and later acquitted, for assaulting a student. Another woman, Rebecca Rego, sued the department in September after she was arrested on a cruise ship in Florida and held in the county’s detention center for days.
Wrongful arrest led to jail over Christmas
On the afternoon of Christmas Eve 2023, Jonas pulled over Outing for a routine traffic stop. He claimed her license tag was expired, but her lawsuit alleges she was never charged or arrested for a violation related to that.
When he approached the car, the officer “claimed to detect the odor of marijuana emanating from [Outing]’s vehicle, and on that basis, conducted a warrantless search of the vehicle,” the lawsuit said, noting that no drugs were found and called the search “unlawful.”
What Jonas did find was a handgun in the glove box of the car. The officer accused Outing of stealing the handgun, placed her under arrest and took her to the county’s detention center. The lawsuit noted an arrest warrant wasn’t obtained until the next day, on Christmas. Outing was held at the jail until Dec. 28, 2023, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit does not accuse the town police department of racial discrimination, but notes that Outing is a Black woman and was 19 years old and had no prior criminal record at the time of her arrest.
When reached by a reporter with The State Tuesday, a town spokesperson said in an email the town “was just made aware of the lawsuit today and does not comment on pending litigation.”
Officer later named police chief, then retired
Less than a year after Outing’s arrest, and subsequent dismissal of charges through a pre-trial intervention program, Jonas was promoted to the police department’s top position of police chief. He served in the position for a little over a year before a car accident led to his retirement.
He was among four people hospitalized following an Aug. 27 crash. Town officials announced his retirement a month later. An investigation by S.C. Highway Patrol revealed Jonas suffered an unforeseen medical event while operating his patrol car, a Dodge Charger, causing him to strike another vehicle, a GMC Terrain SUV, after veering left from the center lane. The crash occurred on South Beltline Boulevard.
WIS TV reported that dashcam footage obtained through a public records request showed Jonas failed a field sobriety test and was arrested following the crash and taken to Alvin S. Glenn, but blew a 0.0 on a breathalyzer. A toxicology report obtained by the news station showed he had 1.5 micrograms of an unidentified daily medication in his system.
Javon Harris contributed to this report.
