Solicitor's Office refers Vashti Washington investigation to SLED
The 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office has asked SLED to investigate allegations that a former Jasper County School District superintendent misspent money by distributing Christmas bonuses.
Solicitor Duffie Stone said he referred the case to the S.C. Law Enforcement Division on Friday morning after receiving the incident report from the Ridgeland Police Department, which separately said in a news release that it did not find any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
"Anytime I ever receive a complaint of any type of allegation of public corruption, then my standard procedure is to refer that to SLED and ask them to look into it, which I've done," Stone said.
He declined to comment further on the case, which began with a criminal report on Tuesday morning by school board member Randy Horton.
Ridgeland finished its portion of the investigation just two days after Horton alleged Washington distributed unauthorized bonuses.
Her attorney said Friday that he wasn't surprised it was handled so quickly.
"There was never much to investigate," Jim Moss of Beaufort said. "If (Horton) would just go over there and talk to Gary West, who is the comptroller and CFO ... he'd get the facts and know them. But he doesn't want to do that."
Ridgeland Police reviewed documents from the district, interviewed West -- the district's chief finance officer -- and conferred with the school district's attorneys and 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office before determining Washington was following an accepted district practice when she distributed about $54,000 in bonuses to district employees just before she resigned Dec. 31, according to a police news release.
She had allocated similar bonuses each of the past three years, the department found.
"Although it is possible that school district policies or protocol was violated, nothing has been discovered to establish any probable cause that a crime was committed," the release said.
Stone said he had not seen the department's news release.
Attempts to reach Horton on Friday were unsuccessful.
His complaint is the latest iteration of his years-long campaign against alleged wrongdoing and misspending in the district.
In December, he settled a defamation lawsuit with Washington, who received about $15,500 from the S.C. Insurance Reserve Fund.
Horton said Wednesday he was not certain Washington broke the law last month but stood by his report to Ridgeland. He wanted to ensure there was a record of who got what bonuses.
The same day, school district attorney Ken Childs said he was still trying to determine whether Washington had broken district or board policy in distributing the bonuses before Christmas, and after she agreed to resign, rather than at the end of the school year.
Washington's attorney, Moss, denies that Washington did anything wrong, calling Horton's allegations "ridiculous."
Negotiations are ongoing between attorneys for Washington and the district to end her contract based on a unanimous vote the board made late Monday.
The board seeks to terminate its December agreement to Washington her annual salary and keep her on as a consultant through 2016.
However, the board has said it will not release any costs or terms of its new agreement until it is finalized.
Special-called meeting
The Jasper County school board announced Friday it would hold a special meeting to receive legal advice and discuss an employment matter in executive session.
There are no public discussions on the agenda, though it states the board anticipates taking action following its closed-door discussion.
When and where: 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jasper County School District office, 10942 N. Jacob Smart Boulevard, Ridgeland
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
Related content:
- Jasper Co. school board member claims former superintendent misused money, January 26, 2016
- Superintendent's attorney rebukes misspending allegation, January 27, 2016
This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Solicitor's Office refers Vashti Washington investigation to SLED."