Police offer accused Conway drug dealers chance to turn lives around

Wallace Evans shook his head Friday as he stared at copies of the federal indictments.

The defendants were not strangers. He knew them from Taylor Square, a Conway neighborhood down the street from the nonprofit A Father’s Place that Evans runs.

“I’ve talked to these young men,” he said. “But that’s the lifestyle that they chose and that’s the direction they want to go in. It’s sad.”

The federal drug conspiracy charges against the four Conway men, that was the sad news. What gave Evans and other community leaders hope Friday was the other part of the program authorities outlined during a news conference at the Conway Police Department.

It’s called C-STAND or Conway-Starting Toward a New Direction.

U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles called the initiative a departure from the federal government’s traditional approach to combating drug crime. The usual method involves undercover buys, arrests and prison time.

“What we’ve found is unless we take the next step, all we’re doing is creating opportunities for somebody else to come in and start selling drugs,” he said.

What Nettles meant was this: Apart from the four men facing federal charges, seven small-time dealers who would otherwise be in line for possible prison sentences are being offered an opportunity. Instead of spending time behind bars, they can get clean, go to school and find a job.

“What it will also do is show the people in Taylor Square that we care,” he said. “This community cares about what happens. And what else I hope will happen — what’s happened every other time we’ve done this — is you see a dramatic if not total end to open air drug dealing.”

Nettles said a similar program was successful in North Charleston.

Grand Strand law enforcement launched their own effort in 2013 after Conway Mayor Alys Lawson met Nettles at a conference for municipal leaders.

Once she heard Nettles talk about the program, Lawson asked him if he could try it in Conway.

The result has been a collaborative but largely undercover year-long investigation involving local, state and federal authorities.

The arrest results became public this week when officials announced that Marcus Dalton Hemingway, also known as “Face,” 36; Marco Delton Hemingway, known as “Co-Teezy,” or “Co,” 36; Albert Tyrone Mayes, called “JT,” 40; and Robert “Booda” Hemingway Jr., 34, were each indicted by a federal grand jury on drug charges.

“This is the first visible sign the community will have of what’s going on here in Conway,” Lawson said. “It’s an innovative approach to eradicate open air drug dealing.”

Nettles said the federal cases are for the worst offenders. Additionally, 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson will be making some state level drug cases.

Then there are the seven people Nettles called “redeemable.”

“Seven individuals we’ve identified as people who deserve a second chance,” he said. “Rather than send them to prison, what we’re going to do is give them the opportunity to turn their lives around. This is what separates this from every drug roundup that’s been done ever since we started the war on drugs 30 years ago.”

For the seven people in the program, whose names were not released on Friday, law enforcement has partnered with medical facilities, local nonprofits and educational centers to help them start anew.

“We have some overlap [in services],” said April Garner, director of the Career Resource Center at Horry Georgetown Technical College. “But it was just good to bring all of the services together so that we could figure out what was going to be best for each of the program participants.”

Evans, of A Father’s Place, said he plans to meet the seven on Tuesday. All of them are participating in the center’s “employment boot camp,” which offers training on finding a job.

Those with children will enroll in the nonprofit’s program for fathers. It includes counseling and peer support sessions.

On Wednesday night, all the organizations involved with C-STAND will meet with the seven to explain how they can help.

An alternative will also be offered.

“Here’s your choice,” Nettles said. “This is your community. This is a community that wants to see you succeed. This is a community that wants to see you end your addiction to drugs. This is a community that wants to see you not go to prison anymore. This is law enforcement. If you go back out on that street and sell drugs, we already have a case that can be made against you.”

Jo Ella McQueen, who runs the local monthly Whittemore magazine with her husband, has been following the case in recent months.

Now that the seven people in the program will be identified, she hopes the community will help them change.

“The work has really just begun,” she said. “We have to look at each individual and think about what can we do to help, not only that person but also the family members.”

This story was originally published April 10, 2015 at 9:25 AM with the headline "Police offer accused Conway drug dealers chance to turn lives around."