Women drowned in Horry sheriff’s van 3 years ago. Why hasn’t there been a criminal trial?
Criminal trials can’t happen fast enough at the 12th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Two former Horry County Sheriff’s Office Deputies were charged in the deaths of two women who drowned in a deputy van on the way to a mental health facility. Nearly three years after the drownings, the case has not gone to trial.
The criminal trial has been delayed in part because of a backlog aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and staffing issues at the Solicitor’s Office, 12th Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements told The Sun News.
Ten murder cases are on the docket awaiting trial ahead of the former Horry County sheriff’s deputies.
“They’re pending and on the docket. We’ve got, unfortunately, a lot of cases ahead of them,” Clements said. “We’re stacked up, particularly on murders.”
Details of Horry County Sheriff’s Deputy criminal case
Sept. 18, 2018, Nicolette Green and Wendy Newton drowned in a caged compartment in the back of an Horry County Sheriff’s Office van after deputies drove the vehicle through Hurricane Florence floodwaters despite a supervisor’s orders.
Stephen Flood, who was allegedly behind the wheel, is charged with two counts of reckless homicide and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Joshua Bishop, the other deputy in the van, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Flood and Bishop were fired from the Horry County Sheriff’s Office in October 2018.
In South Carolina, reckless homicide can carry a sentence of up to 10 years. Involuntary manslaughter is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Flood and Bishop each posted their $5,000 bond Jan. 4, 2019, according to Marion County court records. Both men have been out of jail for more than two years, awaiting their criminal trials.
The Marion County public index shows Flood and Bishop had preliminary hearings April 15, 2019. That was the last court action taken in the case.
Clements said he hoped the Solicitor’s Office would be able to hold a trial for the case before the end of the year, but wasn’t hopeful given the severity of the backlog.
“I was hoping we could reach them by November but I don’t believe we’ll reach them until after the first of the year,” Clements said. “We’re just waiting for the opportunity to get (Flood and Bishop’s cases) before a jury.”
A judge ruled that Horry County must pay more than $12 million to the families of Green and Newton, the result of a civil case that was settled earlier this month.
‘Just overwhelmed’
Clements said the Solicitor’s Office held two murder trials in the past two weeks. The cases “had some age on them,” he said.
Existing staffing issues in the Solicitor’s Office were made worse by the pandemic and the temporary suspension of court. The office does not have enough attorneys to balance out the workload, Clements said.
“We have staffing issues that have nothing to do with the pandemic,” Clements said. “I need my county, the state to pay for some more lawyers. The public defender could use some more lawyers, too. We’ve got to have someone on the other side to move the cases.”
Clements said he fears another suspension of court will put the Solicitor’s Office even farther behind as new COVID-19 cases surge, driven by the highly contagious delta variant of the virus.
“If the covid numbers continue to increase, I hope they don’t suspend court. If they do, that will really put us behind,” he said.
“Once you reach a certain saturation point with the cases, you’re just overwhelmed. A person doesn’t have enough time in a day and a week and a month to handle so many cases at a time. We’re far past that (point),” Clements said.
“It’s like we had a small itch and then the pandemic’s come and it’s gone over our entire body. It’s really exacerbated the problem.”
Beaufort County faces similar issues
A similar problem is playing out in Beaufort County, where 5,896 pending cases were awaiting trial as of June. There, the solicitor, sheriff, and a judge have bickered about the cause of the backlog.
Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone’s plan to reduce the backlog included ending plea deals, hiring four new lawyers, and releasing monthly statistics on the backlog.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 10:28 AM.
