PICKENS COUNTY — A Pickens County sheriff’s deputy has been fired after an altercation led to threats and charges filed by the Easley Police Department.
According to incident reports, on April 22, Michael Jordan McClatchy met with his estranged wife and her boyfriend at the Big Lots parking lot on Pendleton Street in Easley to exchange children as per a family court order.
During the meeting, the male victim stated McClatchy became upset and began making rude hand gestures, threats and at one point yelled “You are lucky that I’m a cop because I would have left you … bloody.”
It is also stated McClatchy warned the victim he had a gun.
Reports then state the wife and boyfriend left the scene, driving to the CVS Pharmacy next to the lot but McClatchy followed the pair and proceeded to tap repeatedly on the car’s windows.
McClatchy was arrested and charged with two counts of harassment but was released from custody after posting a $930 bond.
He was fired from the sheriff’s office on Tuesday.
In a released statement, McClatchy argued it was the media who seized the opportunity to “highlight negativity” and “propagate individual character assassination of police officers.”
His full statement is below.
McClatchy, who has been in law enforcement since 2005, was an officer with the Pickens Police Department until 2012.
In a case that made national news, McClatchy was fired after he posted details online about his traffic stop of Clemson Football Coach Dabo Swinney.
Swinney was ticketed for driving 63 in a 35 mph zone and video of the stop where Swinney can be seen yelling at the officers made its way to Gamecock fan sites where it quickly went viral.
Last summer, while in the employ of the PCSO, McClatchy was involved in the shooting of an 18-year-old burglary suspect in Easley.
The suspect, Franklin Reed Styles, survived.
PCSO officials stated McClatchy was originally placed on administrative leave following the altercation on April 22 but that he was terminated once it was learned the Easley Police Department was pressing charges.
Here is McClatchy’s statement:
“In reference to the allegations against me I would like to make a public statement. It is all too clear that media induced positive public perception of Law Enforcement is tenuous at best. Opportunities to highlight negativity are abounded and propagate individual character assassination of police officers. This incident is just such an attempt. The report made to the Easley Police Department by my ex-wife and her boyfriend clearly shows a one sided affair, attempting to defame my name and sully my career in Law Enforcement. On the day of the alleged incident I contacted the Easley Police Department to file a report and was not contacted until the following day. My statement of events was not included in the incident report or charging documentation. Charges appear to have been made without regard to the entire scope of the situation. Understandably, the Easley Police Department is in a situation not to show bias toward Law Enforcement involved incidents however, the pendulum swings both ways. It would not be unreasonable to speculate undue bias against Law Enforcement to over compensate the public image of impartiality. Family court records show ample evidence of financial motive on my ex wife’s behalf to contrive allegations of harassment against me. My day in court will come and jury of my peers will be given the benefit of the entire story to judge me. The allegations against me are slanderous and false. We all stand at the precipice and beneath us a slippery slope of ‘social justice.’”
