Beaufort Marine recruit arrested at base for outstanding sex crime warrants
A former recruit was detained at the gates of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island last week on a pair of out-of-state sex crime warrants, according to police.
Michael Breven Quertermous, 22, of Benton, Kentucky, was booked into the Beaufort County jail Thursday afternoon on outstanding warrants for first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy from the Lexington Police Department.
Beaufort County deputies detained Quertermous after a group of drill instructors drove the suspect to the base’s main gates in a white van, according to a sheriff’s office incident report. Parris Island officials learned of Quertermous’ active warrants on Jan. 5, according to MCRDPI Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Yarbrough. He was less than two months into his training regiment at the time.
Three days later, and on the same day as his arrest, Quertermous was administratively separated from the Marine Corps for “fraudulent enlistment.” Yarbrough said the decision was made because the recruit failed to disclose his criminal history.
“During the enlistment process, applicants are required to disclose their full criminal history,” Yarbrough wrote in a text message. “This includes everything from speeding tickets to drug use. Failure to disclose information or providing false information about matters can lead to separation for fraudulent enlistment.”
As of Monday afternoon, Quertermous remained in custody at the Beaufort County Detention Center as he awaited extradition to Kentucky. For charges carrying a prison term of more than one year, South Carolina law allows an out-of-state fugitive to be held in jail for up to 20 days until they can be transferred to the appropriate jurisdiction.
Quertermous was the second Marine or Marine-in-training in the Beaufort area to be arrested on sex crime warrants in less than a month.
In mid-December, a serviceman at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort was detained on outstanding child sex crime warrants out of Tennessee. After a week in the county jail, he was transferred to Wilson County and charged with two counts of rape of a child and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child. He was released after posting a $200,000 surety bond.
In Kentucky, first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy are both Class B felonies punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison.
A spokesperson for the Lexington Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
