Police

HORRY COUNTY

Man jailed, accused of sexual conduct

An Indiana man was jailed by Horry County police after an 18-year-old woman reported he inappropriately touched her during their vacation in the Surfside Beach area, according to a police report.

Frank Robert Riggs, 63, of Charlestown, Ind., was charged Monday with third-degree assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct after the incident was reported Sunday to Horry County police, according to the report.

Riggs is being held at J. Reuben Long Detention Center pending a bond hearing.

The charge stemmed from an 18-year-old California woman reporting that Riggs had inappropriately touched her when they arrived in the Surfside Beach area, according to the report.

The woman said Riggs also touched her before they left Indiana for the vacation. She said because Riggs is larger than her she was afraid of him and did not fight him off.

The victim said she reported the incident to family members and then called police.

When officers questioned Riggs, police said he admitted to the acts, and said he did not see anything wrong with it because the woman is 18, according to the report.

Police then took him into custody.

HORRY COUNTY

Man accused of cruelty to children

A 46-year-old Loris man was jailed on a charge he struck a 13-year-old boy in the face with an extension cord and the two argued about missing money from the man’s wallet, according to a police report.

Jimmy Wayne Jackson, 46, was charged Monday with cruelty to children after the incident that was reported on June 6 at a home in the 4300 block of Rodenbo Drive, police said.

He was released Tuesday on $500 bail from J. Reuben Long Detention Center, according to jail records.

The victim told police that Jackson chased him with a metal pipe after he was awakened by Jackson hitting him in the face, according to the report. The victim said he went to a friend’s house on Cedar Branch Road to call police.

Officers noted they were with the victim about 1:45 a.m. that day and his face was not injured, according to the report. When police arrived at 8 a.m. they found two cuts to his face, but he declined to be treated by EMS.

The victim’s mother said she heard her son and Jackson yelling at each other and said the victim told her he was hit with the cord, according to the report. She said Jackson accused the victim of taking $400 from his wallet.

Officers presented the case to a magistrate for an arrest warrant.

CONWAY

Lightning starts fire in Conway

Firefighters in Conway say a lightning strike caused a fire Tuesday in the 3100 block of Mercer Drive.

Firefighters responded to a structure fire on Mercer that began around 5:30 p.m., but put the fire out within about 15 minutes, according to Capt. Jeremy Carter of the Conway Fire Department. He said no one was injured.

Local

LORIS

Daisy Elementary to hold open house

An open house will be held Thursday at Daisy Elementary School, 2801 Red Bluff Road, Loris, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Daisy is a year-round school and begins classes July 25.

Snacks will be sold at the event to raise money for the traditional Washington, D.C., trip that is taken by the fifth-graders.

CONWAY

Electric cooperative meeting moved

Horry Electric Cooperative is breaking a 40-year tradition and moving its annual meeting next year out of Myrtle Beach to Conway.

The annual meeting of cooperative members will be at Coastal Carolina University’s new Student Recreation and Convocation Center on May 14 instead of at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, where the annual meeting has happened since 1972, the cooperative said Tuesday on its website.

Most of the cooperative’s customers are west of the Intracoastal Waterway, so meeting in Conway instead of Myrtle Beach will make it more convenient, the company said. Some aspects of meeting in Myrtle Beach – traffic, the distance and the potential of traveling after dark – have kept some members from attending the annual meeting, according to surveys conducted in 2005 and 2008, the company said.

Horry Electric has been looking for another meeting location for the past few years, the company said. Crews are putting the finishing touches on CCU’s new center, which is expected to open before classes resume Aug. 20.

Horry Electric has nearly 54,000 members, and about 4,330 of them attended the annual meeting in 2010 and 2011, spokeswoman Penelope Hinson said.

Horry Electric customers will be notified about what to expect in the new venue, how to get there and where to go on campus. The meeting format and the credit on their bills that members receive for registering at the meeting won’t change, Hinson said.

“We’re excited about this change and are confident this will be a positive move in the long-term,” Pat Howle, Horry Electric’s executive vice president and CEO, said on the company’s website. “There is no doubt it is going to take a lot of work and coordination on our part and some patience on the part of our members for it to be a successful event.”

From staff reports