New lawyer joins aid for Myrtle Beach man paralyzed in drug raid

A prominent lawyer who gained notoriety working to exonerate three Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape in 2006 has joined Julian Betton’s legal team.

Accused of marijuana distribution, the 31-year-old is suing leaders of the 15th Circuit Drug Enforcement Unit and the drug agents, who shot him nine times during a raid of his Myrtle Beach apartment in 2015.

Betton was crippled by the gunfire and remains permanently paralyzed from the waist down, according to one of his attorneys.

“Julian Betton has suffered greatly and I intend to do everything I can to help ease his suffering going forward,” said Bradley Bannon, who joined Betton’s legal team last month.

The Raleigh, N.C., criminal defense attorney has devoted much of his practice to defending civil rights. Earlier this year, Bannon was featured on the documentary “Fantastic Lies” that detailed the Duke case and the lacrosse players, who were found innocent of the charges.

Bannon says he plans to work with McCoy’s team to make sure Betton “gets the best defense I can give him and that the government doesn’t get an inch it doesn’t deserve.”

Betton was charged with three counts of possession with intent to distribute marijuana after court documents say police found 222 grams (about 8 ounces) in his Withers Swash Drive home during the raid. Two undercover buys with an informant prompted officers to obtain a warrant to search Betton’s home, but Betton’s lawsuit contends the poor execution of that warrant left him paralyzed.

The drug enforcement agents targeted in the lawsuit claim Betton’s injuries and damages were caused by Betton’s own acts of “negligence.”

The lawsuit contends Betton was coming out of his bathroom when armed, plain-clothed agents — some with backwards ball caps and at least one with a mask covering part of his face — broke through his front door without announcing they were police.

Betton had been robbed before, according to the lawsuit, which said he did have a firearm in the back of his waistband. But Betton denies ever pulling it on anyone.

A day before the lawsuit was filed, officers obtained warrants charging Betton with three counts of pointing a firearm, each count representing one of the officers who shot Betton.

Officers of the DEU initially told investigators they fired at Betton because he fired at them first. They later admitted that wasn’t true. An investigation revealed Betton’s gun was never fired.

Bannon said he first read the details of Betton’s case on Radley Balko’s “The Watch,” a Washington Post blog on criminal justice, police misconduct and the rise of militarized policing in the United States.

“I’ve always had an interest in standing with individual citizens against the incredible power of this country’s criminal law enforcement apparatus,” Bannon said. “I believe people should be treated as human beings, not simply files to be opened and closed, and I like giving them a fighting chance. I also want to make sure, where I can, that our system rights its wrongs.”

Bannon has devoted more than half of his 20 years as a criminal defense lawyer to the N.C. Advocates for Justice, a watchdog legal group committed to protecting human rights. He now serves as president-elect on the NCAJ leadership board.

He said he “wanted to take that motivation and energy” that has propelled him as a criminal defense lawyer “into civil rights work, particularly police misconduct cases and wrongful conviction cases.”

Bannon, who grew up in Myrtle Beach, had a chance to dig deeper into the local case after joining the Patterson Harkavy firm this year.

Patterson Harkavy “had already begun to represent Julian in South Carolina and I was really excited to join them and Jonny McCoy’s team in that effort,” Bannon said.

Bannon says he is also excited about returning home to work on the case.

“Just like I remember exactly where I was when I received news that I had passed the North Carolina bar exam, I’ll always remember where I was when I learned that Judge (Bryan) Harwell granted the request to let me appear in South Carolina court on Julian’s behalf,” he said. “That’s a special moment for a kid who grew up in South Carolina and still calls it home. It’s also special because I know I’ll be returning to my hometown to do what I’ve been training for 20 years to do.”

Although ethics rules prevented Bannon from getting into the case’s specifics, he said, “I believe it’s fair to say that Julian’s ordeal is representative of a larger universe of cases we’re seeing all over the country these days where more and more citizens emerge from police encounters either traumatized or seriously injured — if they emerge from them at all.

“It doesn’t always have to be that way,” he said. “It didn’t have to be that way with Julian. And I want to help make sure the right people are held accountable for that.”

Betton’s lead attorney was glad to welcome Bannon to the team.

“Practicing alongside of Brad Bannon is my career's highlight,” McCoy said. “He brings so much to Julian's criminal and civil case. His history of pursuing justice at all cost and expertise in the field of police misconduct will shed light on a large scale to a gross miscarriage of justice here in Horry County. My hope has always been justice for Julian.”

Betton has yet to be tried for the marijuana or presenting firearm charges.

A timeline of the civil case shows that if it proceeds to trial, jury selection would begin in June.

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 8:56 PM with the headline "New lawyer joins aid for Myrtle Beach man paralyzed in drug raid."