Attorney says lawsuits against Beaufort Co. auditor tell harassment victims: Speak up
Two lawsuits filed in 2020 alleging that Beaufort County Auditor Jim Becket harassed two female public officials appear headed toward mediation — where the suits could be settled before trial.
Chelci Avant, the attorney representing both of Beckert’s alleged victims, County Treasurer Maria Walls and former County Chief Financial Officer Alicia Holland, said Friday that the lawsuits, filed within weeks of each other, are bigger than the elected officials involved.
“They’re sending a message to all, including Beaufort County, that the workplace needs to change,” she said. “These lawsuits also send a message to victims of sexual harassment: you do not have to remain silent anymore.”
Walls, who has served as elected treasurer since 2014, sued Beckert alleging that he harassed her and other employees for more than six years, threatened her, stalked her and made inappropriate comments about her pregnancy. Reporters confirmed some of the allegations referenced in Walls’ suit with other current and former county officials.
Walls’ lawsuit also accuses Beaufort County of failing to provide a “safe and non-hostile work environment” despite knowing of Beckert’s alleged abuse.
Former County Chief Financial Officer Alicia Holland, who resigned in 2020, later filed suit in federal court with similar allegations. Her suit said that Beckert bullied her to the point where she became physically sick and resigned.
“The status of ‘elected official’ should not give anyone, including Jim Beckert, free reign to harass, bully, intimidate and threaten others,” said Holland in a statement.
The State newspaper’s editorial board had previously criticized Beckert and Beaufort County for their “utter silence” in the wake of the harassment allegations.
“To this point neither Beckert nor the county government have shown the transparency that they owe the citizens of Beaufort County — particularly on a matter regarding serious allegations about a public official’s conduct in office,” wrote the editorial board.
Beckert, in filings earlier this year, denied the allegations of misconduct. An attorney representing Beckert, Jonathan J. Anderson, reached by phone Saturday, declined to comment.
Hugh Buyck, an attorney representing Beaufort County, did not return a call for comment Friday.
Both lawsuits are still pending — Walls’ in Beaufort County court and Holland’s in federal court. Lawyers from all parties are conducting written discovery and depositions, according to Avant.
Avant said she has taken several depositions from witnesses and is scheduling several more. She did not say who she has deposed.
The latest filing in Walls’ suit is a consent of confidentiality and protective order signed by S.C. Judge Bentley Price. The attorneys representing Beaufort County, Beckert and Walls, had asked Price for the order, which allows the attorneys to mark certain sensitive documents as confidential and exempt them from public disclosure.
To be marked confidential, the records must contain financial information considered confidential by either party; the name, address or phone number of a person considered confidential; or medical records or health care information.
Once a party deems a record confidential, attorneys who wish to use the record in litigation have three options:
▪ They can redact the confidential information;
▪ They can submit the documents solely for a judge’s review in chambers;
▪ If the first two options are not adequate, they can request the records be filed under seal.
After the lawsuit is over, all confidential records must be returned to the party that produced the record unless the document was entered as evidence or the parties agreed to destroy it.
Auditor and treasurer
Some in the community have argued that the lawsuits against Beckert were the genesis of Beaufort County Council’s plan this year to change the county’s form of government.
That plan, which would have made the treasurer and auditor positions appointed not elected, was shot down by nearly 80% of voters last month.
The suits sparked the county’s decision to move Beckert’s office out of the administrative building and calls for his removal from office.
Both officials were first elected to their positions in 2014 and re-elected in 2018.
As treasurer, Walls serves as the county’s chief banker and investment officer and is responsible for collecting and disbursing all property tax revenues.
Those revenues are calculated by Beckert in his role as auditor.
In 2017, Beckert sued Walls and accused her of improperly receiving a copy of Beckert’s personnel file, which compromised his family’s privacy by releasing some of their personal information, according to the lawsuit. That suit was initially dismissed in 2017. A follow up suit, filed by Beckert’s wife Christine, was dismissed in May.
That same year, Walls accused Beckert of over-taxing and under-taxing county residents’ vehicles. She presented an audit to Beaufort County Council that showed 11,000 errors on individual vehicle accounts, according to previous reporting.
Beckert and Beaufort County were also at the center of a heated tax-rate dispute that resulted in property tax bills being delayed for months last year.
It’s also not the first time Beckert has come under fire for questionable behavior.
In 2018, he was asked to apologize after twice addressing then-Beaufort County South Carolina Republican Party Chairwoman Sherri Zedd, who is Jewish, as “Arbeit Zedd” over email. “Arbeit,” the German word for “work,” has become synonymous with the Nazis’ use of the word during the Holocaust.
