Allegations against SC House speaker examined
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office announced Monday that allegations of ethics violations against South Carolina State House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, will go before a grand state jury for investigation, The State reported. Harrell has been accused of misuing campaign funds and using his position for personal gain.
Wilson’s office requested that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division look into the allegations against Harrell when Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council, reported in a letter that Harrell may have violated state ethics laws when he reimbursed himself $300,000 from his campaign account for flying his private plane on state business.
The representative called on Wilson to release details of the investgation in full to the public.
“This has drawn on for far too long and been done behind closed doors,” Harrell said.
The matter is proceeding as election-year politics heat up. The state jury investigation does not mean that Harrell will be indicted, but it that Wilson has questions that were unanswered by the SLED investigation.
Charges against state NAACP president dropped
The city of Columbia dropped the charges against Lonnie Randolph, South Carolina NAACP president, only minutes before his trial was scheduled to take place in city court on Monday morning, The State reported.
Randolph faced charges for trespassing after notice, public disorderly conduct and resisting arrest following an incident in Five Points last July. The NAACP president, who was apparently suffering from a diabetic condition, became confused in Tripp’s Dry Cleaners and caused a disturbance that brought police. Randolph faced a maximum of 90 days in jail, or 30 days for each infraction.
Joe McCulloch, Randolph’s lawyer, said in a press conference that he was “disgusted” that city attorneys got the case almost to trial and then dropped it.
Tripp’s Dry Cleaners, the city’s main witness, refused to testify in court in early December, according to a letter shown in court.
McCulloch said that if the case had proceeded to trial, the jury would have been able to determine a verdict in under one minute.
Dog travels 600 miles to Greenville shelter
The Greenville Humane Society called Dwayne Jackson on Sunday afternoon asking him if he had lost Mona Lisa, his dog, WIS reported.
It turns out he had. Five years ago.
Upon hearing the news, the Illinois resident immediately began the 600-mile drive to South Carolina. He drove through the night in order to be reunited with his pit bull on Monday morning.
“Everybody was like, ‘Are you planning to get her?,’ and I was like, ‘It’s my dog, of course!,’” Jackson said.
The Illinois family had Mona Lisa, her parents and siblings playing in the backyard, but two of the dogs had been stolen by the time they returned half a decade ago. Jackson searched local humane shelters for months and, since his dogs had been microchipped, he continuously kept up with the microchipping registries.
Mona Lisa was brought into the Greenville Humane Society after she was seen wandering around. It is not known how the pit bull found her way to South Carolina.