Officer Who Ticketed Dabo Swinney Drops Lawsuit Against Pickens

The former Pickens Police Officer who was terminated after posting online about ticketing Clemson University Head Football Coach Dabo Swinney has dropped his lawsuit against the City of Pickens.

Fox Carolina reports that Michael McClatchy has taken a job with the Pickens County Sheriff's Office and is no longer pursuing legal action for what he called wrongful termination.

On September 3, 2012 Swinney was ticketed for driving 63 mph in a 35 mph zone on his way to his radio show.

McClatchy said Swinney's brother Tracy was abusive to him during the traffic stop.

McClatchy was fired several days after issuing the ticket after city officials said he used a city computer while at work to post online about ticketing Swinney.

“Mr. McClatchy was terminated for engaging in private activity on company time on company equipment,” the city's statement on the situation read.

City officials have stated they believed McClatchy acted professionally during the traffic stop.

“The City of Pickens takes pride in its police department and in the manner in which they conduct themselves," the statement continued. "Engaging in private activity on City computers while on duty is not what we consider to be an appropriate use of time. We expect all of our officers to be protecting the public and monitoring the activity of the City while on shift." 

But McClatchy said the computer issue was a “red herring,” and that he made the initial online post on September 14 on his own computer at home. He used a city-owned computer to correct an error in the initial post two days later, he said.

He also said that Police Chief Rodney Gregory was aware that McClatchy planned to respond to several postings by others about the ticket, to set the record straight.

But city officials said records showed McClatchy spent more than an hour writing the post on the city's computer.

In a press conference last year, McClatchy said believed “wrongfully terminated for doing my job” and that he believed the city would have dropped the ticket and given the Swinneys preferential treatment.

After the press conference, City Administrator Katherine Hendricks said McClatchy had chosen to not take advantage of the city's grievance policies.

“The City has policies in place where employees who believe they are wrongfully disciplined or terminated may grieve to the Department Head, the Administrator, and finally, the City Council,” she said in a statement. “Mr. McClatchy never made any request to grieve either of his two previous disciplinary warnings or this final action. Instead he has chosen a different route.”