A Virginia State Police spokeswoman said that the white state trooper Charles Hewitt, who was seen in a video, released in 2019, telling a black driver “you are going to get your a** whipped” and then seen pulling the driver out of the car by his neck, is no longer part of the force. 

Spokeswoman Corinne Geller said that the Virginia State Police were prohibited from giving out any additional information about Hewitt. The trooper was fired in February according to the black driver Derrick Thompson’s attorney Joshua Erlich. Erlich was given this information during the settlement of a federal lawsuit, reported the Washington Post. 

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Talking further about the settlement, Erlich said, “Mr Thompson filed this case because Trooper Hewitt’s behaviour was unconscionable, and Mr Thompson is happy with the outcome. He thought he deserved — and received — monetary compensation. And although the VSP did not admit to any wrongdoing, Mr Thompson is heartened Trooper Hewitt is no longer on the street and thinks Virginia is safer for it.”

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This month, the lawsuit was settled at $20,000 with the state admitting to no wrongdoings. 

Virginia State Police Superintendent Gary Settle had said in a statement in July last year, “The conduct displayed by Trooper Hewitt during the course of the traffic stop is not in agreement with the established standards of conduct required of a Virginia trooper.”

The video, which went viral last year, was filmed by the driver Derrick Thompson himself. Thompson is pulled over in Fairfax County because of an expired inspection decal. The video shows Hewitt leaning toward Thompson and yelling, “Take a look at me. I am a f—ing specimen right here, buddy. You have gotten on my last nerve, all right?”

The Virginia trooper then forcefully pulls Thompson out of his vehicle and arrests him. Thompson pleaded guilty last year for misdemeanour obstruction of justice.