Beaufort County has its newest magistrate judge. Here’s who will take the bench
At a waterfront seafood restaurant on Thursday longtime Hilton Head Island attorney Russ Keep III took the oath of office to become the newest magistrate judge in Beaufort County.
Keep will preside over minor criminal and civil cases part-time, while continuing to practice law from his office on the island, according to a news release.
S.C. Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, nominated Keep to serve in the position, and he was confirmed by the Senate on May 12. Keep was sworn in before Beaufort County Clerk of Court Jerri Ann Roseneau at the Poseiden restaurant this week.
“Over the years that I’ve known Russ, and I’ve known him for about 35 years, I’ve appreciated his sense of fairness and his demeanor, and I think he probably will carry himself well as a judge,” Davis said.
“The practice of law here has been very good to me,” Keep said in a statement. “I’d like to give back to the legal community by helping people who are caught up in the legal system, criminal or civil.”
The attorney is also president of the Hilton Head Island Bar Association, and a social gathering hosted by the group brought Roseneau to the island restaurant this week, where they decided to do Keep’s swearing in.
There’s another reason why it was a fitting location, Keep said.
The lawyer, who grew up in Pennsylvania and in Maine and graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1982, then served as an officer in the Marine Corps, which held its first recruitment drive in a tavern during the American Revolution.
Keep has practiced law on the island since 1986.
In his free time, Keep rebuilds sports cars from the 1950s and 60s and has authored a book on Luger pistols, as a historian and shooter of World War I and World War II firearms, according to a biography on his law firm’s website.
As a magistrate judge, Keep may preside over misdemeanor criminal cases involving DUI, minor theft and disorderly conduct, among other offenses. Magistrates can issue arrest warrants, set bail and conduct preliminary hearings to weigh probable cause for more serious charges.
Having a legal degree will distinguish Keep from many magistrates across the state.
In South Carolina, these lower court judges are hand-picked by the state senators and need have no prior legal experience, meaning courts across the state are overseen by political appointees with less training than barbers, according to a 2019 Charleston Post & Courier investigation.
Sen. Davis, a lawyer himself, has criticized this system and authored legislation that would increase legal training for magistrates who aren’t lawyers and add a layer of scrutiny to their appointment process, which is unlike that of any other state.
He would rather not have the sole responsibility to appoint these judges, he said. “I don’t think it’s a good public policy to have that much power focused on one individual.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2021 at 10:06 AM.
