Suspended Anderson police captain investigated 4 other times; no detail on current case

The personnel records of Anderson Police Department Capt. Mike Aikens — who is under investigation by the State Law Enforcement Division — show he has been investigated by his own agency at least four other times in an 18-year career, usually being cleared of wrongdoing. What those records don't show is why he is under scrutiny now from South Carolina's top law enforcement agency.

The Independent Mail and The Greenville News received Aikens' personnel records this week in response to a May 4 Freedom of Information request to the Anderson Police Department, but absent from the files are documents that detail why the agency asked SLED in late April to investigate him.

Previous reporting:SLED investigating Anderson police Capt. Mike Aikens

Multiple efforts to reach Aikens — including phone calls, text messages and Facebook messages — have yielded no response from him since he was placed on paid administrative leave April 27.

The records provided to the newspapers show several other complaints that have been filed against him during his tenure with the Anderson Police Department, including one from earlier this year.

A corporal within the department filed a complaint against Aikens regarding an incident in January.

According to her complaint, deputies from the Anderson County Sheriff's Office were out with a man who had an active arrest warrant, and after someone made a call to Aikens with the police department, the man was not arrested but was going to be allowed to turn himself in several days later.

More:Anderson police promote Aikens

According to the complaint, the man with the warrant knows Aikens and other Anderson police officers through Second Chance and will reach out to them if he gets into trouble.

After an investigation by the police department's internal affairs division, Aikens was exonerated on March 12, according to agency records.

In June 2018, Aikens was investigated after the police department received an anonymous complaint that he was going to his photography studio business during times that he was supposed to be on duty as an officer. The complaint also included accusations that he was spending time during his shift at a local radio station.

According to records, the police department conducted random, daily surveillance of Aikens' photography studio for two weeks and determined that he was not spending his on-duty time there. The complaint was dismissed as unfounded.

In July 2017, Aikens was suspended for three days without pay after he had "a verbal altercation and threatened another employee on duty," according to records. Further details of the incident are not in Aikens' file that was provided to the Independent Mail and The Greenville News. 

Aikens was required to complete training regarding employee harassment and was also on "an evaluation period for 12 months," according to records.

In 2007, a man who Aikens put on trespass notice filed a complaint that Aikens was harassing him, but the complaint was determined to be unfounded after the man and a witness he claimed to have did not respond to multiple inquiries seeking further information, records show.

Aikens, 51, has been with the Anderson Police Department since 2003.

He worked his way through the ranks, starting as a road-patrol officer and eventually reaching the investigative division, where he spent more than a decade as a detective. Now, he is a patrol captain overseeing more than 50 officers, many of whom are in the early stages of their careers.

The formal complaint that details the reason Aikens is under investigation by SLED now was not included in the documents provided to the Independent Mail and The Greenville News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

In the records provided, there is a single piece of paper that references Aikens' current situation — an April 27 document that tells him he is on paid administrative leave until further notice. 

"It is our position that you will not be allowed to work as a City of Anderson Police Officer until this matter has been resolved," according to the document. "An internal investigation will continue."

The document, from the Anderson Police Department's internal affairs division, is signed by Police Chief Jim Stewart, Aikens, and another person whose signature is illegible.

Stewart said Thursday that the last line of the document — "an internal investigation will continue" — isn't accurate in this case, because the Anderson Police Department didn't open a probe on Aikens after it received a complaint about him this time.

"Based on the nature of the complaint, we requested SLED to investigate that," Stewart said.

He declined to detail the nature of the complaint, citing SLED's investigation.

Stewart said he thinks the administrative-leave document that Aikens signed is "just a standard internal-affairs form ... not specific to this case."

Stewart said the complaint  about Aikens had been forwarded to SLED and said that it was not included in the records provided to the newspapers because disclosing it could interfere with SLED's investigation.

SLED, South Carolina's top law enforcement agency, can be called in to investigate a variety of allegations against officers.

SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby confirmed May 4 that Aikens was under investigation "regarding his interactions with a fellow officer," but has also declined to provide further details, citing an open case.

"After speaking with the lead investigator in this case and based on the status, we must ensure the integrity of the investigation and at this point no additional information is releasable," he said Friday.

Crosby said Friday that SLED is still conducting interviews related to Aikens' case.

Stewart and City Attorney Frankie McClain suggested Thursday that the newspapers file another Freedom of Information request in an attempt to get the complaint.

"We'll probably deny it (the request) because disclosing that complaint could seriously affect SLED's investigation," McClain said.

McClain said he hadn't seen the complaint.

"When I got the files, it wasn't in there," he said. 

Justine Lookenott covers breaking news for the Independent Mail. Reach out to her at jlookenott@gannett.com, on Twitter at @justalookenott or through Facebook. Nikie Mayo is an investigative reporter for The Greenville News. Reach her at nmayo@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @NikieMayo