Solicitors office issued 'defective' subpoenas since 1979

After a nearly three year-long investigation into the theft of $100,000 from the Five Rivers Community Development Corporation, prosecutors with the Attorney General’s office reached a plea deal Monday with the mother and daughter charged in the case.

Investigators charged Beulah and Dayo White with stealing the public funds from the Georgetown County nonprofit designed to help low-income people find affordable housing.

At a hearing on Feb. 23, circuit court judge Steven H. John dismissed some evidence against the Whites gathered by illegal subpoenas Hembree’s investigators used.

The Whites faced decades behind bars if convicted of the 15 felony counts against them.

Monday, the pair pleaded guilty to breach of trust, embezzlement, and criminal conspiracy in exchange for five years probation and nine of the 15 charges against them dismissed.

The attorney general’s office said the plea deal was reached after a judge dismissed evidence in the case because of “defective” subpoenas issued by solicitor Greg Hembree’s investigators.

The subpoenas were authorized by the solicitor’s office by way of a signature stamp with the Horry and Georgetown County clerk’s names on them.

State law only authorizes the clerk of court or judges to authorize subpoenas, but since 1979, the 15th Circuit has allowed the solicitor’s office to take on those responsibilities, according to solicitor’s office manager, Cathy Floyd.

Floyd said former clerk of court, Billy Richardson, first allowed former solicitor Jim Dunn to use signature stamps bearing her signature in 1979, according to Floyd.

Dunn went to the Greenville County solicitor’s office to look for ways to run the 15th Circuit office more efficiently and discovered the practice there before implementing it in Horry and Georgetown Counties, according to Floyd.

The move was to save time and money by allowing the solicitor to authorize subpoenas because of a fast-growing case load, Floyd told News13.

Former 15th Circuit Solicitor, Ralph Wilson, told News13 Tuesday that his office never participated in the practice, “There was never a rubber stamp for subpoenas and the proper procedure is if you want a subpoena, you draft the subpoena or get the form from the clerk’s office, you complete the form, then you take it to the clerk’s office for them to sign it,” Wilson said Tuesday.

“You do not do it yourself because now you’re usurping the authority of another department, another office and by statute, you can’t do that,” Wilson said.

The solicitor’s office handed News13 a subpoena bearing a signature stamp from a murder case in 1995, under solicitor Ralph Wilson’s administration.

Floyd said the practice started before Wilson took office, continued throughout his 12-year term, and continued on until earlier this month.

“The prosecutor's job is to be fair, not just to the state, but to the defendant and to the system; that's the responsibility he carries because he's an elected official who has a fiduciary responsibility to the general public, not just to a particular victim or particular case,” Wilson said.

The danger now is that hundreds of thousands of disposed criminal cases that the solicitor’s office investigated with the illegal subpoena procedures could be up for review, “As a defense lawyer, if I represented a client in the past and there is the possibility or the probability that a subpoena, an improper subpoena was used to gather evidence; material evidence which convicted that defendant, then yes, I would definitely want to go back and review that as a defense lawyer,” Wilson said.

Horry County clerk of court Melanie Huggins confiscated 31 signature stamps from the solicitor’s office late last month and stopped the practice after she learned the practice was illegal.

It was something that happened for more than 20 years while Huggins worked under previous clerk’s and continued after she took office.

Under a new policy, only three employees in the clerk of court’s office are allowed to authorize subpoenas and those subpoenas now require a stamped seal, along with Huggins’ signature.

Hembree told News13 by phone Tuesday that his office turned the stamps over to Huggins after she asked for them back and is following the clerk’s policy in dealing with subpoenas.

Hembree said he was not concerned that disposed cases would come back for review because of the subpoena practice.

Five Rivers defense attorney, Charlie Condon told News13 Tuesday he is working with a criminal procedure expert and will decide later whether to proceed with a formal request to investigate the solicitor's office in dealing with the subpoena issue.