Former Bluffton police sergeant acquitted of misconduct after firing in 2024
A former Bluffton police sergeant was found not guilty of misconduct following his firing last year as he was accused of helping his colleague steal firearms from the department.
The jury of Beaufort County residents, made up of six men and six women, reached a unanimous decision in about 30 minutes to acquit Bonifacio Perez, 41. He was indicted on a charge of official misconduct in August of last year and pleaded not guilty.
Perez embraced his defense attorney as the verdict was read before turning back to his wife for a tearful hug.
“Justice was done today. Mr. Perez is very grateful for the jury finding the truth,” Perez’s attorney, Ben Shelton of the Hilton Head Island-based Shelton Law Firm, told The Island Packet outside the courtroom. “This is the first step in what will probably be a long and arduous process of restoring his name in the community.”
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Shelton said Perez did not plan to return to the Bluffton Police Department but would continue to pursue his career in law enforcement. The two would continue examining the legal action wrongfully taken against Perez and “determine who should be held accountable for it,” Shelton said.
Perez was charged alongside Thomas Rauchfuss, formerly a civilian quartermaster and fleet manager at the BPD who was responsible for maintaining and documenting the agency’s equipment and vehicles.
Rauchfuss was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly stealing six firearms that were surrendered to the police force by residents. His case remained pending in Beaufort County court as of Thursday and a trial date had not been scheduled.
Perez was terminated in an August 2024 hearing for reportedly failing to cooperate during an internal investigation held after Rauchfuss’ firing three months prior. Perez was indicted on the accusation of assisting Rauchfuss “in the theft of a firearm(s) from the Bluffton Police Department.”
Perez became a sworn BPD officer in 2010, receiving positive performance reviews and a number of promotions over the years. He became a sergeant in 2017 and was responsible for overseeing officers and training new recruits. In 2019, he took on the role of a school resource officer supervisor, managing five of the officers posted in Bluffton-area schools and leading operations in other schools that did not have assigned SROs.
For several years, Perez also acted as a public information officer, handling media requests and the police force’s public relations.
“He was a law enforcement officer for 14 years with no writeups whatsoever,” Shelton said, adding that Perez had been named BPD’s Officer of the Year in 2013. “He did three jobs. It took three people to replace him. It’s Bluffton’s loss — that’s the sad thing.”
Former officers testify
Called to the witness stand by prosecutors were two current BPD officers and a special agent from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Officer Athen Brown, who joined BPD in early 2022, testified on Wednesday that he was initially assigned to help a resident who was surrendering a firearm on April 8, 2024, when Perez told him via radio that Rauchfuss would handle the call.
Lt. Brendan Cooler, who was a sergeant at the time of the incident, said on the same day he saw Rauchfuss walk into the quartermaster’s office carrying a box of “long guns.” “I just found it odd because he’s a civilian employee,” Cooler said, citing a general police rule that guns should only be surrendered to sworn officers.
SLED special agent Rebecca Gregg, who was assigned to investigate the potential misconduct at BPD in spring 2024, testified that during her investigation she found a call log for the firearms surrendered April 8 of that year but no accompanying police report.
During cross-examination from Shelton, Gregg said Perez was the first to tell her about Rauchfuss allegedly stealing the firearms during a voluntary interview in May 2024. Rauchfuss declined to take part in an interview, she said.
The defense rested its case Wednesday afternoon without calling any witnesses.
‘Where’s the beef?’
In her closing argument Thursday morning, 1st Circuit Solicitor’s Office Deputy Solicitor Bethany Miles, who prosecuted the case, said Perez’s act of “changing the path of a forfeited gun” into Rauchfuss’ possession was an example of misconduct.
“There’s nothing illegal about a civilian giving a gun to another civilian,” Miles told the jury. “But when a person forfeits a gun into law enforcement, it’s supposed to go to law enforcement ... Not any officer or civilian who works there can take those guns.”
During the defense’s final statements to the jury, Shelton used a famous catchphrase from a 1984 Wendy’s ad — “Where’s the Beef?” — to characterize what he saw as a blatant lack of evidence presented by the prosecution.
“(The prosecutors) present you with this big, fluffy bun: ‘He violated his oath, he did this, he did that,’” Shelton said. “But where’s the beef? All they have is a fluffy bun on the outside; you open it up and there’s nothing there.”
Shelton questioned why prosecutors did not present a recording of the police radio call on April 8, 2024, where Perez allegedly told a BPD officer that the surrendered firearm case had been reassigned to Rauchfuss. He told the jury that many vital questions were left unanswered: who the person surrendering the firearms was, who Rauchfuss was as a person and where the supposedly stolen firearms ended up.
“No one testified that the firearms are no longer at the Bluffton Police Department. They didn’t bring everybody from (the evidence department),” Shelton said. “Again, you’re just left to speculate, to guess. You don’t convict on that.”
Judge ‘struggles’ with lack of evidence
After both sides rested their cases Wednesday afternoon, Shelton made a motion for directed verdict, asking Circuit Court Judge Dale E. Van Slambrook to rule there was no sufficient evidence for a jury to find Perez guilty, thus ending the case in the defendant’s favor.
“I’ve never been in a criminal case ... with this thin of evidence that was brought — not just to trial, but that was indicted,” Shelton told the judge.
Slambrook seemed to agree, telling Miles he was “struggling” to see the evidence that Perez committed the offense he was indicted under.
“Where’s the theft? Tell me where the theft is,” the judge told Miles after the jury was dismissed for a short break.
After a 10-minute break in his chambers, Slambrook denied the prosecution’s motion “by the thinnest of margins,” arguing there was a way for the jury to find Perez guilty using the testimony that was presented.
Slambrook denied the prosecution’s renewed motion for directed verdict on Thursday morning, allowing the jury to come to its own decision.
This story was originally published September 25, 2025 at 1:06 PM.
