Ex-SC trooper gets probation in kicking incident

A former South Carolina trooper caughton video kicking a suspect in the head after a highway chase has been sentenced to three years probation. He must serve a year and a day of that in a halfway house.
   
John Sawyer, who tearfully apologized, was sentenced Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge David Norton in Charleston.
   
Sawyer was caught on video kicking Sergio Caridi of New York during the May 2006 incident on Interstate 95.
   
Law enforcement personnel, a doctor and a minister told Norton the officer on the tape was not the Sawyer they knew.
   
The year-and-a-day in a halfway house means Sawyer is eligible for good time, meaning he might only have to serve 85 percent of the term.