Former captain to challenge P.J. Tanner for Beaufort County sheriff in vitriolic rematch
A former Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office captain is running again to unseat Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner in what is already proving to be a vitriolic rematch.
Joey “JoJo” Woodward Jr. made the announcement over the weekend. Just days later, accusations of lying have been lobbed and years-long personal grievances resurfaced after a reporter called both men for comment.
Reached by phone, Woodward suggested Sheriff Tanner was looking for another job in 2018, which is why Woodward ran for sheriff the first time, he said.
“I’m not looking for another job. ... I’m not going anywhere,” said Woodward. “I have a vested interest in this county.”
Asked about this, Tanner said that was “an absolute lie” and “garbage.” He said Woodward lied several times to Tanner while working under him, on whether he was going to run for sheriff. Lying to superiors, Tanner said, is grounds for Woodward’s law enforcement credentials to be pulled.
Both men are running as Republicans and will be on the ballot for the primary election June 14.
One of the issues to come up already in the 2022 sheriff’s race is the agency’s relationship with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office under Duffie Stone, the top prosecutor of Beaufort County and the four other counties in the circuit.
It’s a strained relationship at times, spilling out into the public as recently as last year, when Tanner accused Stone of using a growing case backlog to get more money for his agency. In an op-ed, Stone defended himself and accused Tanner of lying.
According to Tanner, Woodward is a puppet candidate for Solicitor Stone.
“JoJo is carrying Duffie Stone’s water,” said Tanner this week. “He’s being handled by a bunch of people who don’t like me because I don’t play games with them.”
After Woodward lost his bid for sheriff in 2018 with 45% of the vote, he went to work as an investigator for the Solicitor’s Office. Investigators help prosecutors locate and reinterview witnesses, assist with trial preparation, and serve subpoenas, among other things. He mostly worked on Jasper County cases.
Woodward left that job last week to run for sheriff.
Woodward would not be more specific about why the relationship between the two offices needed to be better, he just said it needed to be.
“These lawyers are working hard. ... I still think Sheriff Tanner needs to have a better relationship with Duffie Stone,” Woodward said. “They’re trying to get these cases into court. Instead of arguing and fighting and publishing and pointing fingers, let’s work together.”
Duffie Stone, reached Monday, said he didn’t put up Woodward to run for sheriff.
“No there’s no truth to that,” Stone said. “I haven’t gotten any comments from Sheriff Tanner, any issue that he has with his office. He seems to call reporters, but he doesn’t call me.”
On the issues
Woodward’s biggest priorities, he said, are to get more deputies hired and out on patrol, more fiscal transparency about where money is being spent, and establishing community advisory boards.
Woodward was light on specifics on how he wanted to recruit more officers, other than criticizing “low morale” due to the current sheriff. Police departments across the country have been experiencing an uptick in retirements and resignations, while hiring has slowed, according to June 2021 data from the Police Executive Research Forum.
There are currently 37 deputy vacancies in the Sheriff’s Office, said Tanner.
Tanner said in the upcoming Beaufort County budget, he was requesting an increase in the base salary for a deputy with no prior experience from $41,000 to $47,000 to incentivize officer recruitment. Woodward said he is only doing so now because he has an election challenger.
Woodward said he wants more deputies on traffic enforcement, making commutes safer for residents.
Woodward also argues that crime is rising in Beaufort County.
According to FBI crime statistics, reported to the agency by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, violent crimes — homicides, sexual assaults, aggravated assaults — have decreased in recent years. Property crimes have also decreased, the data shows.
Woodward said those statistics are incomplete, adding he believes crime is rising in unincorporated parts of the county, but offered no evidence.
He said he will be releasing more campaign planks in the coming weeks.
Tanner touted his accomplishments in establishing a DNA lab in the county and overseeing a massive rise in population since he started the job in 1999. Tanner is seeking his seventh term as sheriff.
The Murdaughs
One of the biggest stories in South Carolina history made its way into the upcoming sheriff’s race.
In the days after the still-unsolved killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh in June 2021, the Charleston Post and Courier newspaper published a photo of three investigators with Stone’s Solicitor’s Office walking with Alex Murdaugh’s brother at the crime scene.
At the time, questions were swirling about the role of Duffie Stone in the investigation. Stone was the successor as 14th Circuit Solicitor following the Murdaugh dynasty. Stone previously recused himself after Paul Murdaugh was involved in a 2019 boat crash that killed a 19-year-old woman and had not yet recused himself in the murder investigation.
The S.C. Law Enforcement Division, the agency investigating the murders, asked for the Solicitor’s Office’s assistance at the crime scene, according to a previous public records request.
JoJo Woodward was one of the investigators photographed at the scene.
“If he can explain why he’s running again,” Tanner told FITS news, a South Carolina web-based news site, last week, “then he should be prepared to debate this time, where he can explain to people why he was caught hanging out at the Murdaugh murder scene.”
Woodward said Tanner’s comment was inappropriate.
“It would be unethical for me first of all to talk about what I was doing at a crime scene, based on that an investigation is still active,” Woodward said. He also noted that the two men did have a debate in the last election.
“But if the sheriff really wants to know what a solicitor’s investigator is doing,” Woodward added, “why doesn’t he call Duffie Stone?”
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 4:55 AM.
