In the 218 pages of the city’s police investigation of Mayor–elect Steve Benjamin’s 5:43 a.m., April 21 wreck at the intersection of Pickens and Gervais, there is not one mention of Police Chief Tandy Carter. The first time the city’s head of the police department gets a mention in the 218–page report is on May 12, two days after Carter was fired and replaced by Interim Chief Burke, orchestrated by Columbia City Manager Steve Gantt and 21 days— three weeks—after the accident.

During the three weeks between the accident and the first mention of Interim Police Chief Burke, the city’s police investigators were making day–to–day progress looking into the accident, not investigating Steve Benjamin personally.

The report begins its “PROGRESS REPORT” activity chronicle on the morning of the accident, Wednesday, April 21. One major interruption in the progress of the investigation was the repeated delays by Benjamin and his lawyers in answering the written questions presented by the city’s police investigators.

On May 3, the second Monday after the accident, 12 days after the accident, Benjamin signed his first formal statement, presumably answering questions from the city police investigators. The statement, however, was in essay form, not an itemized list of answers corresponding to an itemized list of questions provided by the police investigators. Apparently the essay reply of May 3 was deemed inadequate.

Another statement was issued by Benjamin three days later, an addendum dated May 6. In an accompanying letter, also dated May 6, Benjamin’s lawyer, S.C. Representative James E. Smith Jr. (D–Richland), said, “Mr. Benjamin is again providing a statement in his continuing spirit of cooperation and with the undiminished appreciation for the investigators’ courtesy and professionalism. Although we have confidence in the professionalism and ability of the City of Columbia Police Department, we continue to believe it to be most appropriate and in the best interest of the City of Columbia, the Columbia Police Department, Ms. Rubens, and Mr. Benjamin for this investigation to be turned over to the South Carolina Highway Patrol and again request that the City of Columbia Police Department do so.”

A powerful member of the S.C. House of Representatives was asking the investigation be turned over to the S.C. Highway Department, where Smith’s State House seniority has presumed influence, and away from the City of Columbia, where Smith’s lack of a municipal position has little apparent influence.

On May 10, Monday, the day Chief Carter was fired, the activity noted for the day in the Progress Report read, “Worked on diagram.”

On May 12, Wednesday, a letter was sent to Benjamin’s attorney Smith. The activity inclusion that day in the Progress Report read, “Once we started the letter to Mr. Benjamin’s attorney, we received a draft letter of Cpt. M. Johnson. Once completed, the letter was reviewed by Cpt. Johnson and Bob Cooper, and investigators were advised there needed to be a deadline stated in the letter and a statement that not answering the questions would be considered a refusal to answer.”

The letter approved by Interim Chief Burke was dated May 12 and delivered by hand to “Mr. Benjamin’s attorney,” also on May 12. In the letter MPO Scott Wilson and MPO Jason Whittle, traffic collision investigators, established the deadline of May 19, Wednesday, one week later for the answers. Benjamin’s essay statement of May 3 and his addendum of May 6 were still inadequate in answering the questions presented by the city police accident investigators. In the May 12 letter demanding answers within the week, the officers said in no uncertain terms:

“Dear Mr. James E. Smith Jr.: We have received your letter and Mr. Benjamin’s addendum to his original statement concerning the collision at Gervais Street and Pickens Street on 04–21–2010. There are still several questions from the interview and statement form that were left unanswered, and we still need a response to them. This will be our final attempt to obtain these answers from Mr. Benjamin and failure to respond will be considered as a refusal to answer and will be noted as such. We would request a response from Mr. Benjamin no later than 05–19–2010 either by letter or personal visit to our office. Thank you.”

On May 19, the following Wednesday, deadline day, Benjamin dates his second addendum that day and states he was not fatigued the morning of the accident, which was after about three hours of bed rest at the Hilton following a brutal political campaign capped off by a stunning victory margin. Fatigue was not a problem, he said. Benjamin further described his status at the time of the accident as “not distracted.”

Benjamin had some coffee in the hotel lobby around 5:30 a.m., the morning of the accident, then he proceeded to his wife’s car, which was parked the night before by a hotel valet. He cranked up the car, pulled out of the parking space, drove out of the garage, and took a left on Park Street. At Gervais Street he took a right turn and proceeded east through lights at Assembly, Main, Sumter, Marion, Bull, entering the intersection with Pickens and never noticing his headlamps were not on the whole time.

He was ticketed for not having his headlamps on in the dark of night. Ms. Rubens, whom he hit in the intersection with Pickens, pulled her Toyota Tercel north into the intersection to take a right turn east, never seeing Benjamin’s unlighted Mercedes SUV.

Benjamin said in his May 19 statement, the second addendum to his May 3 essay answer: “During my drive prior to the accident I did not make nor receive any phone calls. I did not send nor check any text messages. I did check my voicemail and listened to messages using my speaker function of my cell phone. I was not distracted at the time of the accident.” Again, that statement was part of Benjamin’s second addendum addressed to the police accident investigators and delivered May 19, 28 days after the accident. It took Benjamin four weeks to get this much of his side of the story across.

(Still, what’s missing is any record of his cell phone use. The city police and the highway patrol never issued a subpoena for Benjamin’s cell phone records.)

On May 26, 16 days after Columbia Police Chief Tandy Carter was fired for dragging the investigation along, the police accident investigators’ Progress Report recorded the following: “Investigators Wilson and Whittle concluded the serious collision packet at 0800hrs. The investigation packet is now in the external review stage.”

And finally on May 27, the Progress Report said, “The collision packet was copied and passed to the South Carolina Highway Patrol for final review.”

(The City of Columbia was supposedly clamoring to pass the investigation to the highway department just as soon as Police Chief Tandy Carter would release it. Carter was fired May 10 for not releasing the investigation. The highway department got the investigation 17 days after Carter was fired.)

Steve Benjamin will be sworn it as Columbia’s mayor on Wednesday, June 30. The new fiscal year begins the next day, July 1, 2010.