SC agency failed to monitor teen involved in Halloween sexual assault near CCU, suit says
One of the teens involved in a brutal sexual assault two years ago near Coastal Carolina University was supposed to be confined to his home with an ankle monitor, according to a lawsuit filed by the victim.
Mije Basnight, of Loris, and Ja’Real Tavon Warren, of Green Sea, were sentenced earlier this year to 20 and 30 years in prison, respectively, after pleading guilty to charges related to the assault, including kidnapping and armed robbery.
The victim was sitting in her car on Halloween 2021 at The Cove at Coastal Carolina apartment complex when the teens opened her door, Warren raped her at gunpoint, and they stole her phone and car, warrants stated. They then backed the car into the victim, causing her to land on the trunk, and drove “at a high rate of speed” down S.C. 544 until she was thrown from the vehicle.
Basnight, 16 at the time, was on probation and home confinement, wearing an ankle monitor that was supposed to be monitored by the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, the victim’s lawsuit alleges.
The complaint names the department and BI Incorporated, the company that supplied the ankle monitor, as defendants for negligence in monitoring Basnight, who was a known danger to the community.
A spokeswoman for the department declined to comment on the pending litigation, and a request for comment sent to GEO Group, the parent company of BI Incorporated, was not returned.
Reforming SC ankle monitor oversight
Inconsistent regulations surrounding electronic monitoring in South Carolina has been a major part of the discussion surrounding the need for bond reform in recent years.
Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bond reform bill earlier this year that requires the State Law Enforcement Division to set rules surrounding the ankle monitoring industry, but those in law enforcement say issues continue to persist.
Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, who called the 2021 Halloween assault one of the most “horrific” cases his office has prosecuted, told The Sun News that electronic monitoring can work well as an alternative to holding suspects in jail in certain circumstances.
In domestic violence cases, for instance, the ankle monitor could be programmed to alert authorities if the suspect goes somewhere the victim is supposed to be, Richardson said. Alternatively, strict home confinement could alert authorities if the suspect leaves their home at all, he added.
“Those are the strictest types for bond ankle monitoring,” Richardson said. “That works like a champ.”
The issues arise when — as was likely the case with Basnight — judges set various restrictions associated with the monitoring, such as curfews, when the suspect can be out of the house at multiple locations until 10 p.m. or so, Richardson said.
“That’s hard to monitor,” he said, “because there might be 15 or 20 different people on home detention at the same time with different restrictions, and you have to have staff looking at it all the time.”
The problem with the recently passed legislation is that it stops short of requiring judges to abide by the rules SLED sets, Richardson said. A SLED spokeswoman did not respond to a request for information about the status of those rules.
“If I were king of the world, the judges would say I am putting you on electronic monitoring in compliance with this statute and everybody has the same thing,” he said. “You almost have to have one size fits all.”
