Eight dockworkers who were arrested during a clash with police at the State Ports Authority’s Columbus Street Terminal were charged Friday with instigating a riot and sent back to jail.
They had been released earlier Friday after initially being charged only with trespassing.
Magistrate Jack Guedalia, who set bail Friday in an unusual nighttime court session, ordered the workers - all members of the International Longeshoremen’s Association - be held on bail ranging from $35,000 to $100,000.
He stipulated that if released on bail, the defendants be on home detention from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. each day. They can go to work and to union meetings but can’t participate in any picketing or protests, Guedalia told them.
Lawyers for the accused sought personal recognizance bonds. But representatives of the S.C. Attorney General’s Office and the local solicitor’s office argue the riot was a serious and dangerous offense - and that it could happen again if curbs aren’t immediately imposed.
After six of the eight defendants had appeared before the magistrate, attorney Andy Savage pointed out that a Charleston police photographer was making videotapes of the proceedings.
“That’s a totally illegal proceeding,” Savage said. Guedalia told the photographer, Bill Murton, to leave. Guedalia said only the news media was permitted to take pictures in court.
Murton said later he was asked by Police Chief Reuben Greenberg to shoot the video. Murton said he doesn’t know the purpose of his chief’s request.
There was standing room only in the courtroom, and each defendant was allowed to have only one relative in the seating area. Savage represented three of the defendants and attorney Lionel Lofton five.
Assistant Attorney General Brad Cranshaw told Guedalia he has been reviewing television videotapes of the early Thursday melee, and still pictures published by The Post and Courier. He said he also has spoken to police officers and news reporters and photographers who were injured in the incident at the SPA terminal.
Cranshaw showed Guedalia some prints of the newspaper’s photos.
“There is probable cause that a riot was afoot, and these men were involved,” Cranshaw said. “Their actions are reprehensible, and we are asking for a high bond in their case.”
Charged with instigating, aiding or participating in a riot are: Ricky Simmons, 26, of America Street; Willie J. Grant, 47, of Savage Road; Jason N. Edgerton, 22, of Oak Marsh Drive, Mount Pleasant; Charles Brave Jr., 46, of Fisherman’s Bend, Mount Pleasant; Leonard Riley, 47, of Burris Road; Joseph E. McPherson, 28, of Muller Driver; John J. Scrughan, 43, of Dobester Ave., Charleston; and Elijiah Ford Jr., 39, of Ventura Drive, North Charleston. They had been charged with trespassing. Ford also had been charged with resisting arrest.
Rioting is a felony publishable by up to five years in prison.
Attorney General Charlie Condon said earlier Friday he will seek a court order limiting the number of protesters on the picket line and preventing ILA protesters from blocking access to the port or interfering with operations.
ILA members are angry that Nordana Line, a small Danish shipping line, has hired Winyah Stevedoring, which is owned by Georgetown waterfront figure Perry Collins, to unload its ships at the port of Charleston with non-union workers.
Byron Miller, the ports authority’s public relations manager, said Winyah is expected to unload the Turquoise, a charter ship carrying a cargo of steel, due to arrive here Sunday.
It will take about 10 to 12 hours to unload the ship, Miller said. “The port authority has not been told to expect a protest. In the event there is any protest, then we have to be prepared to respond.”
Police estimated that more than 400 people took part in the riot, which began just after midnight Wednesday. About 600 law enforcement officers from across the state were on hand to keep order.
In a prepared statement, Condon said he is seeking a temporary injunction for public nuisance and violation of the state’s right-to-work laws against the ILA and Kenneth Riley, president of ILA’s Local 1422.
The restraining order would seek to stop the ILA and Riley from intimidating those who work at the port authority or interfering with access to port authority property, Condon said. The order would prohibit more than four people at any time from peacefully picketing any entrance to the Columbus Street terminal.
Riley was not available for comment Friday.
During the riot, a dozen people were injured.
Maj. Bill Mastrianni, assistant director of Charleston County Emergency Medical Services, said about 10 workers and police officers were also treated for a variety of minor cuts, bumps and bruises.
Six people involved in the riot sought treatment at downtown area hospitals, spokesmen said. All were treated and released. Given the size of the crowd, it could have been much worse, Mastrianni said.
After the riot, a dockworker transported to Roper Hospital after he complained of chest pains while at the union hall, emergency workers said.
Despite the ruckus, there was no damage to the port facilities, said Anne Moise, a SPA spokeswoman. However, a television truck was overturned and windows were smashed in a states trooper’s cruiser and two other news vehicles, witnesses said.
All the dockworkers posted bail Thursday on the trespassing charges and were released from the Charleston police lock-up, Moise said. They are scheduled to appear Tuesday in Municipal Court.
Charleston Police Chief Reuben Greenberg said his department has dozens of hours of video of the melee. “The video can justify the injunction,” he said. He said police didn’t strike the protesters but pushed forward to hold their line.
The crowd was ordered to leave well after the time that it should have returned to the union hall, Greenberg said. “We kept saying this has been declared an unlawful assembly,” the chief said.
The riot broke out only after dockworkers thought that the size of the police force had been reduced, Greenberg said. The ILA action, the chief said, shows that the size of the police force was necessary. Greenberg said Riley, the union president, found out that “he couldn’t prevail, and that is what he does not like about it.”
Glenn Smith of The Post and Courier contributed to this report.
