Stephen Teachout
Stephen Teachout disputes claims that he grabbed a 12-year-old boy’s arm or stepped onto the property of the child’s family to take a laser from the youth who had been aiming it at drivers from the yard of his Garden City Beach home.
Teachout, who is the commander of the Myrtle Beach unit of the Civil Air Patrol, describes himself as high spirited. After the laser was shined in his face, he said he got off his mo-ped, walked up to the boy and took the laser pointer.
“I grabbed the laser and said, ‘Thank you,’ ” Teachout said.
The Oct. 9 incident led to Teachout being charged with third-degree assault and petit larceny. In response, he said the local CAP unit would no longer provide aerial support for Horry County.
According to the arrest report, the child said Teachout cursed at him, got off his mo-ped, grabbed him by the arm and took the laser.
The boy told police Teachout said, “How about that, [expletive], it’s mine now,” the report stated.
Teachout, however, points to two other adults riding behind him on a motorcycle who said he never grabbed the boy’s arm or went on the property.
“Is the 12-year-old going to lie if he feels like he’s in trouble? Of course he is,” Teachout said.
Teachout was charged after the boy’s parents wanted charges pursued.
The boy was also issued a juvenile summons for public disorderly conduct for his role in the incident. Teachout has requested a jury trial.
“It was a double wrong, and the officer was in the wrong,” Teachout said. “And I don’t condone charging the child.
“The officer didn’t do his due diligence.”
Teachout was contacted by the officer via telephone to discuss the matter. He told law enforcement the boy shined the laser into his eyes and he was taking it from the boy, “just like he would take a baseball bat from someone if they were assaulting him.”
“Thank God we didn’t crash,” Teachout said.
The officer eventually stopped Teachout because the phone call had gone from an interview to a situation in which Miranda rights became an issue.
In response to Teachout’s threat that Horry County wouldn’t receive aerial support from CAP, Emerson Smith, spokesman for the head office in Columbia, said it will continue.
“That’s our charge, by Congress, to serve everyone,” Smith previously said. “No squadron commander can say that and follow through on that. It just can’t be done.”
Teachout has been suspended from duty pending the outcome of an investigation.
He could be reinstated to active duty, or terminated from the air patrol.
The CAP national headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., is handling the investigation, Smith said. He didn’t know when it would be finished.
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