Former officer charged in shooting death released on bail

Michael Slager, the SC cop seen on cellphone video fatally shooting Walter Scott as he was running away in April, was granted bond Monday after a judge expressed concerns that it was taking too long to bring him to trial, according to NBC News.

The conditions of the bond require Slager to stay inside his home under house arrest, forbid him from leaving the state of SC, and forbid him from having any contact with the Scott family.

Judge Clifton Newman set bail for Slager, 34, at $US500,000 on Monday, and the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office said he was released from jail.

In this image from video, Walter Scott struggles with police officer Michael Thomas Slager in Charleston, S.C., on April 4, 2015.

If found guilty, Slager faces the death penalty or 30 years to life in prison.

“I look forward to going to court and clearing my name”, he said.

Walter Scott, the father of the slain man, also addressed the judge, saying he often goes to the cemetery to visit his son’s flower-bedecked grave.

Meanwhile, Slager’s pretrial confinement could affect a sort of punishment on the former officer even while he is presumed innocent, the judge said.

Bamberg says, “What I want everybody watching to understand is, this is just another step in the process”. Slager was originally denied bond in September of past year. He said before his ruling that “these are excruciating issues for the court to deal with”.

Authorities say Slager was released from the Charleston County Courthouse.

At Monday’s hearing, Slager spoke in court before his bond was set, CNN affiliate WCIV reported.

Slager’s attorneys had requested a speedy trial, but Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson filed a 10-page response to that motion, saying a date in the fall would be both reasonable and necessary because she is also working on the case against Dylann Roof, the suspect in the June shooting deaths of nine parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME Church.

Bamberg said Scott’s family was not happy that Slager had gotten bond. Slager was released at 7 p.m. after posting $500,000 bail, a jail spokesman said. “The only thing that can do is land you where Officer Slager is right now, which is a defendant on a criminal charge”.

“It’s everybody’s fault but his”, she said.

In October, the city of North Charleston approved a $6.5 million civil settlement with Scott’s family.