[SC] Officer Zayas - No jail for gun to girlfriend's head or threats to kill her

October of 2005 Officer Zayas was finally sentenced.

From the warrant excerpt pictured here:
"...DEFENDANT EDWARD "EDDIE" ZAYAS, AN OFFICER WITH THE TIMMONSVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT, WHILE ON DUTY... PHYSICALLY AND VERBALLY ASSAULTED HIS LIVE-IN GIRLFRIEND... DURING THE ASSAULT, THE DEFENDANT UNHOLSTERED HIS ISSUED DUTY WEAPON THEN POINTED THE WEAPON... THREATENING TO KILL (HER) AND HIMSELF. VICTIM AND WITNESSES ARE WILLING TO TESTIFY TO SAME..."

The event happened in August of last year, this warrant was signed in September, and he wasn't arrested until December. Between August and December there was another incident where he hit his girlfriend in the face, busting her lip, and pictures were taken - and still no arrest was made that night either - despite the state law. That's what often happens when there's no officer-involved dv policy and the local police do the investigation. (And Lord only knows when he jumped out of Timmonsville pd and over to the Lake City Police Department - but it was in the midst of all this somewhere.) Eventually it made it to the prosecutor (long story) and Zayas FACED UP TO 30 YEARS IN PRISON for two felony counts of criminal domestic violence and misconduct in office. Even though Zayas pled guilty to all three charges, NO SENTENCING RECOMMENDATION WAS MADE. Circuit Judge Thomas Cooper sentenced Zayas to three years in prison, but suspended that to two years' probation.
There you have it. For those who think it's a punishment, he did lose his right to have a gun and so did lose his police job. I call that "natural consequences." Busting his woman in the face, assaulting her, and holding a gun to her head - along with the unaddressed "terroristic threatening" - were freebies for Zayas. May she (and he) be safe.