Horry County can block sex offenders from owning ‘child-oriented’ businesses, SC AG says

Horry County leaders can reject licenses for registered sex offenders working at or running “child-oriented businesses,” according to the South Carolina Attorney General.

That was the July 8 opinion of a the Attorney General’s Office deputy, putting to rest questions of whether the county council could be sued for trying to prohibit registered sex offenders from working at establishments frequented by minors. The policy is protected under a newly adopted state law, the opinion stated.

“It really makes the county’s ordinance moot,” 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said “(State officials) took care of whatever the county was looking to curtail.”

Horry County spokeswoman Kelly Moore said officials had no comment.

In his response, Solicitor General Robert Cook said a measure signed by Gov. Henry McMaster in May nullified the county’s concerns.

The county’s goals “closely overlap” with a state law making it illegal for convicted sex offenders to “operate, work for, be employed by or volunteer for a child-oriented business,” Cook wrote.

Lawmakers revamped the law in response to a state Supreme Court ruling. Treasurer Angie Jones, whose office is responsible for managing business licenses, said in March her department would need more employees to help uphold the county’s rule, and Richardson then asked the attorney general’s office for a review.

“That’s the reason we got the AG’s opinion, because we knew the state was in the process of making some changes and what Horry County’s team had written just didn’t make sense,” Jones said.

The issue arose after a lengthy county council debate earlier this year prompted by an ice cream truck parked at Inlet Seafood Market near Murrells Inlet.

Last September, market owner Adam Wiseman learned the truck’s owner was one-time pastor Robert Taylor, who was convicted in 2006 of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person between 11 and 14 years old.

County leaders got to work on an ordinance presented in March that would have required business license holders submit to criminal background checks and certify that their employees had done the same.

Offenses that could bar a person include: criminal sexual conduct, sexual performance by children, kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap, prostitution, trafficking in persons, material harmful to minors, child exploitation and child prostitution. It also covers any “attempt, solicitation or conspiracy to commit” one of those offenses.

The measure also defined “child-oriented” businesses as any that cater to minors. Examples include toy stores, youth athletic facilities, day care centers, ice cream trucks, laser tag facilities, water parks, mini-golf courses and video game arcades.

Anyone with a conviction dating back 20 years could also have their business license blocked or revoked.

Jones said she’s meeting next week with Barry Spivey, the county’s assistant administrator, which could lead to a more streamlined policy regulating where convicted sex offenders can work.

“It can be simple,” she said. “But what happened with the first one that Horry County wrote is they got pen happy and wrote an ordinance without talking to any of us. it was just gone about the wrong way.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 10:37 AM.