Attorney: Former lawmaker Viers deserves probation, not prison

An attorney for Thad Viers is asking that the former state lawmaker receive probation — a sentence federal prosecutors don’t oppose, according to court records.

Viers, 37, pleaded guilty to money laundering in April and was preparing to be sentenced in Florence this week, but some last-minute scheduling changes on Monday led the judge to cancel the hearing. A new court date has not been set.

Although a money laundering conviction carries up to 10 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine, Viers’ attorney, Trey Cockrell, is urging the court to consider probation, home detention and community service for his client, who is cooperating with federal prosecutors.

Bolstering Viers’ case for leniency are more than 85 letters of support filed with the court this week. The authors range from lawyers to doctors to pastors, as well as prosecutors and the president of the S.C. Fraternal Order of Police. Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus wrote a letter on Viers’ behalf as did Coastal Carolina University board member Natasha Hanna. Republican activists such as Johnnie Bellamy and John Bonsignor offered their voices, too.

Many longtime friends also submitted notes, including Tosca Noni Nease, a 93-year-old Myrtle Beach woman who has known Viers for a decade.

“I would write two letters if it would help and believe he is a honest man that made a mistake,” Nease wrote.

Cockrell, who could not be reached for comment, said in court papers that the letters illustrate his client’s character.

“They all paint a picture of Viers that is totally opposite of the actions involved in his offense,” the lawyer wrote. “A very important recurring theme throughout all of the letters is Viers’s remorse for his actions.”

Before his plea, the former legislator and one-time frontrunner for the 7th District Congressional seat was facing more than a dozen charges in connection with alleged racketeering-related financial transactions and lying to the IRS.

All other counts are being dismissed as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Had he been convicted of the original 14 charges, Viers faced up to 145 years in prison.

The case against Viers stemmed from allegations that he tried to help law firm client Marlon Weaver hide assets from an insurance company that was trying to collect money on a construction bond.

Weaver pleaded guilty to a felony money laundering charge and in June was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison. He was also ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution and serve three years of supervised release. Prosecutors asked that his sentence be reduced because of his assistance in other cases.

Weaver admitted he tried to hide money he made from the 2010 sale of Bucksport Marina from an insurance company that had provided a $6 million bond for a road paving project his company was supposed to complete.

Among the assets Weaver pledged as security for the bond was his one-fifth interest in the marina.

Investigators say Weaver back-dated documents to make it appear as if he had transferred his interest in the marina to his daughters prior to his company's default on the road paving project.

Prosecutors say Viers knew Weaver was trying to hide the money and helped him form a limited liability corporation that purportedly transferred Weaver's interest in the marina to his daughters.

An indictment states Viers also made 12 withdrawals totaling $524,000 from a trust account he set up and gave that money to Weaver. Prosecutors say Viers knew that money came from Weaver's illegal activity related to the marina sale.

They also say Viers lied to an IRS investigator when he said he was not aware that Weaver was trying to hide assets from the insurance company.

Viers served in the S.C. House of Representatives from 2003-12. He represented District 68, which includes Socastee. A graduate of Socastee High School and the University of South Carolina law school, Viers was a frontrunner for the open U.S. House District 7 seat in 2012 before withdrawing from the race when he was accused of stalking a former girlfriend.

After the federal case and the loss of his law license, Viers has rebuilt his life, according to court papers.

He’s lived with his longtime girlfriend, Alexis Hudson, for more than a year and Hudson has called Viers a “wonderful father figure” for her son, court records show.

Since November, he’s been working as the director of corporate and contract affairs for Defender Resorts, a Myrtle Beach timeshare and property management company. Both the company president and chairman wrote letters of support for him.

Viers was initially scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 19, but Cockrell asked that he be given more time to negotiate with prosecutors and prepare for the hearing.

Sentencing was rescheduled for Wednesday, but Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks on Monday pushed the hearing up to Tuesday.

Cockrell asked the judge to change the date, saying character witnesses from Aiken, Columbia and Myrtle Beach had received time off from their employers for Wednesday and likely couldn’t appear a day earlier. Hendricks then canceled the hearing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Day, the prosecutor handling the Viers case, could not be reached for comment.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Attorney: Former lawmaker Viers deserves probation, not prison."