Hilton Head landlord tries to evict tenant but instead faces domestic violence charge
Following a violent dispute inside a shared apartment, a Hilton Head landlord told police she wanted to evict her roommate.
But not all went according to plan. Shortly after, the landlord was arrested on a 2010 warrant for felony domestic violence.
Beverly Ladson, 60, of Hilton Head, was charged Thursday with domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, according to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.
Ladson’s arrest warrant stems from an August 2010 incident, when she allegedly pulled a knife on and threatened her common-law husband, according to Jasper County Sheriff Donald L. Hipp. Ladson left the scene before police arrived.
In South Carolina, domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and is considered a more serious offense than first-degree domestic violence.
Ladson was transported Thursday from the Beaufort County Detention Center to the Jasper County Detention Center, Hipp said.
Officials from the Jasper County Detention Center could not immediately be reached for details about Ladson’s bond and release.
Eviction call
Beaufort County deputies had been called just before 9 p.m. Wednesday to a unit at Hilton Head Gardens, an apartment complex off William Hilton Parkway on the north end of the island. Upon arrival, they had to separate Ladson and her tenant, who were “screaming threats towards one another,” according to the police report.
Spurred by an ongoing eviction dispute, Ladson’s two teenage daughters had contacted the tenant threatening to “beat her up,” the tenant told police. The daughters then arrived at the apartment and “came after her,” she said.
Ladson claimed her daughters were there only to help “remove” the tenant from the apartment. After her daughters arrived, she told police, the tenant had wielded a knife and threatened to hurt the family.
Officers found no evidence of the knife or the alleged assault inside the apartment.
No other charges are being sought in relation to the incident, according to Maj. Angela Viens, a spokesperson for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
