Charges: Colleton County sheriff embezzled, forced sex on employee, gave out drugs

Another South Carolina sheriff has been indicted on numerous public corruption charges.

Indictments against Colleton County Sheriff Robert Strickland Jr., 40, by a state grand jury were announced Tuesday on more than a dozen charges including misconduct in office, using his official position for financial gain and sex, use of public funds to influence an election, distribution of a controlled substance and embezzlement.

And at a bond hearing Tuesday afternoon, Attorney General’s office chief grand jury prosecutor Creighton Waters told state Judge DeAndrea Benjamin that witnesses in the case were living in fear of retaliation by Strickland. Waters asked that the sheriff be put on house arrest and be required to put up a $50,000 secured bond.

“They are very scared of him,” Waters told the judge.

Although Benjamin declined the request to put Strickland, a Republican, on house arrest, she did require him to wear a GPS, put up a secured $25,000 bond, surrender his guns and stay away from witnesses in the case and his employees at the Colleton County sheriff’s department.

Strickland’s attorney, Andy Savage of Charleston, told the judge that his client was a S.C. Highway Patrol trooper for about 20 years and also worked for the State Law Enforcement Division as a teen. Savage said Strickland is undergoing weekly treatments for an unspecified malady and argued that the sheriff posed no danger.

Waters also revealed more details of Strickland’s alleged crimes, including that the sheriff had various side businesses where he “flipped houses” and required on-duty deputies and staff to help out with that. In another side business, Strickland sold various used appliances and required his staff to help.

“They had a name for it, your honor — they called it ‘code 48’,” Waters said. In various police codes, “Code 48” is said to mean “traffic repair needed.”

Strickland also had a rural home he was “doing extensive construction on,” and he put deputies to work on it and had them clear brush around the property, Waters said.

Waters also said that Strickland used his “supervisory power over the employment and wages of the sheriff’s office staff” to force an ongoing sexual relationship with an employee and made that employee’s job and salary conditional on the sex provided the sheriff.

Strickland also took an employee to a conference in Myrtle Beach, Waters said. “He had no reason to go there — he was only going there to pursue an extramarital affair with the subordinate.” While there, Strickland gave the young employee, who was under 21, alcohol and Ambien, a prescription sedative that is illegal to use without a doctor’s okay.

Strickland, who was already suspended from office late last year by Gov. Henry McMaster after being indicted on a domestic violence charge, had a bond hearing at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Richland County courthouse before Judge Benjamin.

The investigation that led to Tuesday’s announcement of new charges against Strickland was already in progress in November when Strickland was indicted on a domestic violence charge, Waters said at the bond hearing.

Savage told the judge that although there appear to be numerous charges against Strickland, the charges are really variations on several of the same violations. And furthermore, Savage said, none of the offenses carry a mandatory prison sentence — they give the judge latitude to give no time at all in the event of a guilty plea or conviction.

Savage also said the victim in the alleged domestic case now objects to the case.

The charges against Strickland were announced by State Attorney General Alan Wilson in a news release. SLED agents conducted the investigation.

The new charges also include misconduct in office and giving a $3,000 government radio “with secure first responder communication channels to a citizen with no valid official purpose” for the device. Strickland had the transmitter disabled, and the device has since been recovered, Waters said.

Colleton County is a small — population around 37,000 people — but sprawling Lowcountry county roughly between Charleston and Beaufort.

In recent years, more than half a dozen South Carolina sheriffs have pleaded guilty or been convicted of various serious crimes. They include:

▪ In 2012, former Saluda County Sheriff Jason Booth left office after pleading guilty to charges of misusing inmates at his county jail.

▪ In 2013, former Abbeville County Sheriff Charles Goodwin stepped down after pleading guilty to misconduct in office for receiving kickbacks. He was put on probation and sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

▪ In 2014, former Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker was convicted by a jury on charges he gave inmates at his jail access to women, weapons, alcohol and the Internet. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

Also in 2014, former Williamsburg County Sheriff Michael Johnson was found guilty of using his sheriff’s incident reports in a credit fraud conspiracy. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

In 2015, former Lexington County Sheriff Jimmy Metts pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge of conspiring to keep two undocumented immigrants from being processed at his jail so he could release them back into the community. Metts was sentenced to a year in prison.

▪ In January, former Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone pled guilty to embezzlement in state court. He was sentenced to probation.

Another, suspended Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood, is facing numerous state and federal charges in connection with the alleged misuse of his office and employees.

This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Charges: Colleton County sheriff embezzled, forced sex on employee, gave out drugs."