Police officer charged with felony sex crime involving teenage girl in Bluffton residence
A credentialed police officer from Beaufort County faces a felony sex crime charge for allegedly propositioning a teenage girl for sex, according to a state police investigation.
Harvey Makenzie Bethea, 35, of the Alljoy nieghborhood in Bluffton, was arrested Wednesday morning for criminal solicitation of a minor, according to Beaufort County jail records. The felony charge, defined as an adult communicating with an underage person to “persuade, entice, or coerce” them into sexual activity, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
An affidavit from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division says Bethea had “employed” the 16-year-old victim at his residence while he and another person were at work, although details about the nature of the job were redacted. Between March 13 and March 20 of 2024, Bethea “repeatedly returned to the residence” throughout the day and asked the girl “what she would do in exchange for a puppy,” the document says.
When the victim offered to purchase the dog, Bethea allegedly asked her for sex. The man also told the girl “he would do the sexual acts to her if she was not comfortable doing them to him,” the affidavit says. These propositions allegedly continued over several days before March 21, when the victim stopped working for Bethea and reported the incidents to police. SLED obtained his arrest warrant Sept. 30, the document says.
Prior to his arrest, Bethea worked as an officer at the University of South Carolina Beaufort Police Department beginning in October 2021, resigning Feb. 26 of this year, according to university spokesperson Carol Weir. She declined to comment on the circumstances of his resignation.
Records from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy show Bethea was also employed at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office as a “student” from October 2017 through April 2018. He did not start classes during his time at the department and was not considered an officer, according to SCCJA spokesperson Florence McCants.
Bethea graduated from the academy’s basic training program in March 2022 and obtained his Class I law enforcement certification, which is required for all police officers, deputies and state agents.
Unrelated to the solicitation charge, Bethea’s resignation from USCB police was submitted less than a week after the department completed an internal investigation into his conduct. The investigation was launched after a female student approached other members of the university’s police force Jan. 22 to report her “interaction” with Bethea during a traffic stop, according to SCCJA disciplinary records.
After the monthlong internal investigation, USCB police said they found evidence of Bethea committing 14 law and policy violations in late 2023 and early 2024, including:
- Failure to report data from traffic stops
- Violations of bodycam and in-car camera guidelines
- Disobeying an order related to traffic stops from Erik Salus, USCB’s chief of police
- Two violations of professionalism guidelines, including one related to a USCB student
- Violation of the department’s “limits of authority” section regarding warnings
Disciplinary forms from the SCCJA also outline one instance of Bethea activating his emergency blue lights and “driving through a standing red light” to make a U-turn on U.S. 278.
At the bottom of the separation forms, Chief Salus signed a section attesting that the separation “does not involve misconduct” and did not disqualify Bethea from law enforcement certification. His SCCJA report says his certifications have not expired but that his status as a Class I officer was “inactive” because he was not currently employed as an officer.
Just under two hours after his booking, Bethea was released from the Beaufort County jail on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond, meaning he was not required to pay bail money under the condition that he appears for future court dates.
This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 3:41 PM.
