Bluffton Police stands by DUI arrests after former May River band director charges dropped
A Bluffton prosecutor dropped driving under the influence charges Tuesday in two Bluffton Police Department cases — one involving the now-former May River High School band director — just two weeks after the department abruptly suspended its award-winning, grant-funded DUI unit and reassigned the unit’s sole officer in a “lateral move.”
The officer, Baker Odom, had arrested and charged each driver with DUI despite one having a blood alcohol content of zero, and, in the case of the former teacher, a BAC well below the legal limit to drive, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.
“Finally,” the former teacher, Shelby Ledbetter, wrote on her Facebook page after Tuesday’s Bluffton municipal court decision, “charges completely dropped. When people abuse their authority, it is devastating for those who are innocent.”
Ledbetter, 25, said she was fired by the Beaufort County Board of Education on Nov. 6 for what the school district told her were unrelated reasons.
In a Wednesday email, Ledbetter said the reasons district officials gave for her termination “were not reflective of the reality of the situation.”
“The DUI had to have have some bearing in the decision,” she wrote.
The second Bluffton Police case involved the 19-year-old son of Bluffton real estate agent Nickey Maxey.
Odom arrested Maxey’s son Aug. 21 and charged him with DUI despite the teen registering a zero on an alcohol breath test.
Immediately after the arrest, Maxey announced his candidacy for Bluffton Town Council, saying he was campaigning to improve policing in Bluffton. He ended the campaign shortly after.
On Wednesday, police spokesperson Captain Joe Babkiewicz said the department had reviewed videos of each arrest and “certainly stands by Odom and those arrests.”
Both drivers, he said, “had obvious issues with the field sobriety test.”
When asked for a response to Ledbetter’s assertion that Odom was abusing his authority, Babkiewicz said the department “would be happy” to meet with her to discuss her concerns.
The department has not yet decided on the future of the DUI unit, which was suspended Nov. 18.
At the time, Bluffton Police would not comment on the reason for the change.
The department received a $125,000 grant from the state in 2017 to fund an officer position solely focused on DUIs. Last year, it was funded by $70,000 in grant money, and Bluffton Police were recognized by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety for having 264 DUI arrests, which the state agency noted was unexpected for a town the size of Bluffton, according to previous reporting by the Packet and the Gazette.
The unit’s suspension came about a month after Odom arrested Ledbetter and charged her with DUI and improper lane change. A breath test taken shortly after her Oct. 19 arrest showed Ledbetter to have a .04 percent blood alcohol content, which is half the legal limit of .08 percent to drive in South Carolina.
On Tuesday, Ledbetter pleaded guilty to driving between 10 and 15 mph over the speed limit, according to her lawyer, J.J. Evans of the Charleston law firm Thurmond Kirchner and Timbes, P.A. When Odom pulled her over, she was going 61 mph in a 50 mph zone, according to the police report.
Maxey said Thursday his son’s DUI charge was dismissed and there were no other charges associated with the arrest.
“I’m glad the court system did the right thing,” Maxey said of his son’s exoneration. “The police department shouldn’t be putting innocent people in jail.”
Ledbetter’s lawyer declined to comment on “the officer’s performance.”
“The prosecutor did an excellent job in realizing the case had no prosecutorial merit,” he said. “Shelby was obviously not impaired.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 2:19 PM.