Horry police settles suit after wrongfully charging strip club owner with child sex abuse
Horry County Police and 15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson settled a defamation case after wrongfully charging a Myrtle Beach man with several child sexual abuse charges.
The case was settled on Oct. 7 after it was set to go to trial that day. The settlement amount has not been released.
The Sun News has asked the information from the county through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Anthony Strickland, the owner of the former adult entertainment club Chez Joey, and four others — Panteleimon Spirakis, Ambrose Heavener and Lindsey Honeycutt — were charged and arrested in 2016 for a number of child sexual crimes. Police alleged the group had forced a set of 4-year-old twins to have sex with each other and adults in exchange for money, among other horrifying acts of abuse.
While the other three pleaded guilty, the charges against Strickland were eventually dropped due to insufficient evidence and he was found to not be involved, the lawsuit stated.
Strickland sued Horry County Police and Richardson in 2021 for defamation, malicious prosecution and civil conspiracy.
The settlement will be paid by Insurance Reserve Fund, the insurance carrier for the Solicitor’s office and Horry County Police, said Patrick McLaughlin, Strickland’s lawyer, in an email to The Sun News.
The other three people charged have already been sentenced, The Sun News reported. Honeycutt, the children’s mother, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Spirakis to 20 years. Heavener is serving 15 years through an Alford plea, which is when a defendant does not admit to their role in the alleged incident, but says there is enough evidence they would likely be found guilty in a trial.
Strickland was connected to the crimes because the children were abused at a strip club, which police presumed was Chez Joey, the lawsuit states. Police pursued this lead despite Chez Joey and Strickland not matching descriptions from the victims.
At the time of the alleged sexual abuse, Honeycutt worked at Chez Joey and Pearls Cabaret, a strip club located on U.S. 17 South in Atlantic Beach. But evidence in court records reveals that Horry police did not investigate the Atlantic Beach strip club - where defendants eventually told police the abuse initially occurred.
In the spring of 2016, Strickland was arrested. He spent 14 days in jail before paying an $80,000 conditional bond, according to the lawsuit. After being released from jail, he had to wear an electric monitoring system and was not allowed to leave South Carolina for two years.
The Department of Social Services also opened a case against him regarding his two children, whom he had custody of, after he got out of jail.
In 2018, test results showed that Strickland’s DNA was not found on either victim, the suit states. Strickland also states that Honeycutt spoke to police several times as charges were pending and never implicated Strickland.
“In reality, there has never been any credible evidence that Anthony committed the crimes alleged,” McLaughlin said.
