News from around The Carolinas

South Carolina

CHARLESTON

Suit claims The Citadel negligent

The Citadel, South Carolina’s state military college, was “grossly negligent” and worried only about its reputation when it failed to report a sex abuse complaint to law enforcement four years ago, a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.

The suit was brought by nationally known abuse victim attorney Jeff Anderson on behalf of a mother who lives out of state.

Her son, the complaint says, was molested by Louis “Skip” ReVille after ReVille left The Citadel.

ReVille was a counselor at The Citadel’s summer camp nine years ago and the college received a complaint in 2007 from a camper who said he had been sexually abused.

The military college did an internal investigation, but did not notify police at the time.

ReVille, 32, a Citadel graduate, is now charged with molesting nine youngsters after he left The Citadel when he was a teacher and coach in Charleston area schools, recreation programs and churches. He was arrested in October.

COLUMBIA

Man free after serving a fifth of sentence

A S.C. board has approved parole for former HomeGold chief executive Ronnie Sheppard, who’s served four years of a 20-year sentence for his role in one of the state’s largest bankruptcies.

Probation, Parole and Pardon Services spokesman Pete O’Boyle says a three-person panel voted Wednesday to approve parole for Sheppard. A Lexington County jury found Sheppard guilty in 2007 of securities fraud, conspiracy and obtaining property under false pretenses in the 2003 collapse of HomeGold and its subsidiary, Carolina Investors.

O’Boyle says Sheppard has to be looking for work and a place to live before parole can be finalized. O’Boyle said no one appeared before the parole board to oppose the decision.

More than 8,000 investors lost $275 million in the bankruptcy of Carolina Investors.

COLUMBIA

Former Aryan Nations leader jail bound

A one-time leader in the Aryan Nations white supremacist group has been sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to fraud.

A judge on Wednesday sentenced August Kreis to time served as he awaited sentencing after pleading guilty to taking nearly $193,000 in a need based military pension that prosecutors said he wasn’t entirely eligible to collect.

Kreis rose through the ranks of the Aryan Nations and tried to take over the group after it lost a $6.3 million settlement in 2000.

Federal prosecutors say they began investigating Kreis’ finances after he suggested his group should join with al-Qaida because they both have common enemies.

Berkley County

Trial delayed in testicle flap

The trial of a S.C. woman who displayed plastic testicles on her pickup truck again has been delayed.

Virginia Tice of Bonneau was to stand trial Wednesday in municipal court in the Berkeley County community. Now the trial has been delayed until January.

Tice’s attorney, Scott Bischoff, says at least 30 people need to be summoned as possible jurors for municipal court but only about 20 were called. With strikes for both sides, there were not enough people to sit a jury.

It’s the third time the trial has been delayed. Tice received a $445 ticket last July on a charge she violated the state’s obscene bumper sticker law.

Bonneau Police Chief Franco Fuda wants a jury trial, saying questions of obscenity should be determined by community standards.

North Carolina

RALEIGH

Perdue official enters Alford plea

Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue’s 2008 fundraising chief has entered an Alford plea to a felony obstruction charge for using his company to hide payments from a donor and pad another campaign worker’s salary.

A Wake County judge on Wednesday accepted the plea from Peter Reichard of Greensboro and gave him a suspended sentence of six to eight months, 24 months of unsupervised probation and a $25,000 fine.

An Alford plea does not admit guilt but concedes there is enough evidence for a conviction.

Reichard pleaded to the same count on which he was indicted by a grand jury two weeks ago.

The indictment accused Reichard of funneling $32,000 from a Morganton businessman through Reichard’s merchant banking firm to campaign worker Julieigh Sitton.

DURHAM

Judge sets bond in Peterson case

The judge who ordered a new trial for novelist Michael Peterson has set bond for his release at $300,000.

Judge Orlando Hudson set the secured bond Wednesday after he ruled that a key investigator misled jurors about bloodstain evidence at Peterson’s 2003 trial.

Attorney David Rudolf says it would likely be Thursday before Peterson’s release paperwork can be completed.

Peterson will have to wear electronic monitoring while awaiting his new trial.

He will live at a friend’s home in Durham.

Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2001 death of Kathleen Peterson, who was found at the bottom of a staircase in the couple’s mansion.

Peterson has maintained his wife died in an accidental fall.

From wire reports