South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

Does this new law mean that if you have evidence and/or reliable complaint against a party that a magistrate/judge will write a summons to appear in court? My family has had two incidents where mother was wronged and we know the perpetrator, but cannot have him questioned or arrested. SLED has investigated one of the incidents and the solicitor would not issue warrant--on another incident police investigators informed us that it was not their job to investigate the forgery of mother's name on a transfer document closing joint investments accounts.The following is known but no arrest, no warrant, no questioning by experts, no nothing---****** is going to get away with stealing my father's life savings. ******** was a resident and business man in Chesterfield County all of his life. He began saving silver coins in the 1950's and in the 60's as copper was mixed my sisters and I would spend hours with him separating the coins he would bring home after work. The coins were stored in Tropicana orange juice jars and at first were buried underneath our home because he felt that they would be safe and undetected. My father was killed in December of 1971.

My mother remarried in February of 1984 and kept the silver a secret until she had central air conditioning installed in the home. She then told ****** about the possibility of more jars being underneath the home. She and my youngest sister had moved much of the silver to the interior of our home. Later, the silver was moved to the family safe which mother had moved from the business my dad operated to the home. The safe was completely full of jars and rolled silver coins. My sisters and I can verify the amount because we inventoried the silver when mother was placed on the ventilator in August of 2007 and was not expected to live. However, we did not see a ring box mother had placed for us because it had been pushed to the back of a bin behind a jar of silver which indicates ******* had been in the safe prior to August 2007 which backs up a statement my middle sister made when opening the safe. She stated that she thought there should have been more silver.

Mother survived the August hospitalization, but continued to remain ill and went into the hospital 3 times in January and February of 2008. In February, ******* refused twice to get her medical help when she was having respiratory problems. On the 12th, my sister, ****, who lives in Alabama recognized respiratory distress pleaded and screamed with ******** over the phone to get mother to the hospital, but he refused. ******phoned *********, a friend and ******* went to the home and immediately dialed 911. When emergency workers arrived, ******* stated: "I'll be damn." Mother survived and returned home on Sunday February 17. On Monday the 18th, ******* left the home leaving mother on the floor in distress a second time. I had stayed overnight and had been up most of the night caring for her. I had fallen asleep, but woke suddenly to find her and called 911. *******'s only excuse for leaving her was that he had a doctor's appointment. Mother was so weak that she could not walk or hardly speak. She was transferred to Morrel Rehabilitation Center and remained there for almost 3 weeks. Less than a week in rehab, ******* filed for separation and support.

After the first court date in March of 2008, mother and my youngest sister opened the safe to get papers requested by ******** when they discovered that most of the silver coins saved for us for over 35 years were missing. The only person to have access to the safe was ******** who had gone in and written his name on jars and containers and also written "Lib" on containers. Mama always signed things for us as "mama." The silver belonged to me and my sisters as we were the ones who helped separate, package and move it to hiding places with daddy so we would be the only ones with knowledge of its whereabouts, but mom knew of its existence. ******** has stolen thousands of dollars (estimate $200,000 or more) of silver coins and we cannot get any justice working with law enforcement and the judicial system. SLED was given all the evidence that we could collect, however, ******** has not been questioned by experts concerning the theft.

******** would not talk with agents. He was home but would not open the door after asking who was there. Therefore the following was never accomplished:
• ********'s safe deposit boxes or mobile home were never searched.
• ********'s daughter’s homes were never searched.
• Cell phone records were never requested to see if ******** had contact with ******** of Charlotte, NC or any pawn shops purchasing silver coins.
• ******** of Charlotte was never contacted even though I found his name and address on a pack of pennies in the safe that ******** had left ( a possible contact to dispose of the silver—******** knows ******** —I was able to get that information from ********)
• ******** was never questioned about what happened to the 3 jars that he had found and gave to ********.
• ******** was never asked why there were so many pennies in the safe instead of silver
• ********was never questioned about the type of jars in the safe. Coins were found in quart mayo jars not the type Robert had access to in the 50’s and 60’s.
• ********was never asked why he thought it necessary to label containers belonging to us with “Lib.”

We also learned after the separation papers were filed that ******** had closed a joint investment account with Edward Jones by forging mother's signature in August of 2006. Again thousands of dollars that mother was depending on to help with finances as her illness progressed. After ******** left the home and mother returned, it has been amazing how her health has improved. Questioning and observations led me and my sisters to believe that there may have been some fowl play on ********'s behalf with how ill she had become. Her skin color had been an yellow-gray color, she had lost mobility, was suffering from headaches, felt nauseous most of the time and felt heavy depression--- all side effects of pesticide/insecticide poisoning. Being concerned we sent hair samples off to a lab to be tested, but only to learn that ******** can not be arrested for that either even if the tests are positive for toxins/chemicals or heavy metals.

Please note that, although your comment remains intact, I deleted the offending person's name from the post. I apologize, but I cannot publish specific accusations of that nature on this site.

The only thing that is changed by the new law is that the defendant is not arrested - a courtesy summons is issued instead.

A private citizen can obtain a summons upon a showing of probable cause that another has committed a misdemeanor (punishable by 30 days or under).

Forgery, for example, is not such a misdemeanor, nor would larceny of 200k worth of property be a misdemeanor. So, in this situation you could not obtain a summons yourself.

The next problem that you have is that it sounds as if law enforcement has determined that there is not probable cause for an arrest. If there is not probable cause for an arrest the magistrate cannot sign the warrant, and if he did the case should end up getting dismissed anyway. There has to be sufficient evidence to prove that a crime has been committed, and that it is not a civil matter.

The only suggestion I have would be to retain a private investigator that could gather the evidence needed to make a case, and have your investigator present his evidence to law enforcement for you, but this would be costly with no guarantees of a result.

Another more practical suggestion is that you could contact a plaintiff's attorney and seek advice about the possibility of recourse in the civil courts.