Former deputy, accused of kicking man in handcuffs, set for September trial

By DEUCE NIVEN

     Trial for a former Columbus County Sheriff’s Office deputy, accused of assaulting a man in handcuffs in January, is scheduled for a special session of District Court in September after a Tabor City setting on Friday was continued.

     William Donald Britt, 38, resigned from his job as a patrol deputy at the sheriff’s office just a few days following the Jan. 16 incident involving Clint Mills, 34, of Kure Beach, Sheriff Lewis Hatcher said Tuesday.

     Britt was charged with simple assault in a criminal summons obtained Feb. 22 by Special Agent P. L. Raynor of the State Bureau of Investigation.

     Britt is accused of kicking Clint Mills, 36, of Kure Beach, “in the head after he was handcuffed,” the summons said.

     Mills was issued citations near Britt’s home on Old Boardman Road in Evergreen, reports by Trooper W.A. Rogers of the North Carolina Highway Patrol said. Mills was charged with driving left of center, passing in a no passing zone, running a stop sign, reckless driving, and driving 100 milers per hour in a 55 MPH zone, the reports said.

     Charges against Mills were dismissed on Feb. 14, about a week before the citations were issued against Britt, a “prosecutorial decision,” the dismissal notice said.

     For more on this story see today’s Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.