SCSO captain placed on leave following video incident
LIVE OAK, Fla. — John Mills, a captain with the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office, has been placed on administrative leave as an investigation is conducted on an incident between Mills and a videographer.
According to the video on Youtube, the man was shooting video of government offices at the Suwannee County Courthouse annex Monday while waiting on a friend at the Tax Collector’s office when he walked outside and approached the Suwannee County Jail.
After taking video of the outside of the jail, the man approached the front doors and shot footage through the door but did not enter.
“I’m not going to go in and bother these people because I know they’re tyrants,” the man said on the video.
A minute later, Mills came out and approached the man, asking what he was doing.
Mills told the videographer that he couldn’t take pictures of the jail because it was a “secure location.”
When instructed to leave the area, the videographer responds, “I’m being kicked out of public?”
Mills again instructed the man to leave the area because filming the jail was a security concern.
Mills then can be seen reaching for the cellphone, on which the man was filming, while telling him to put it down.
“Now you’re going to assault me?” the videographer asks. “Please don’t assault me sir, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Mills again instructs the man that it’s a security concern and that he needs to continue walking down the sidewalk.
Mills then issued a verbal trespass warning to the videographer and escorted him away from the building.
Suwannee County Sheriff Sam St. John has ordered an internal affairs investigation into the incident and placed Mills on administrative leave.
St. John and the SCSO will not provide any further details until the investigation is complete, according to a release.
Mills has worked for the SCSO for more than 20 years. He oversees the jail in his duties as captain.