Union County Sheriff and other officials arrested
Earlier this month Howard Wells, the former Union County Sheriff, was arrested and charged in federal court with witness tampering and lying to authorities.
The allegations came to light during an investigation of possible public corruption and drugs that already had named the former mayor of Union and another city official and Monday the Union County supervisor and other local officials, U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins said.
In February this year, the former Union Mayor Bruce Morgan was sentenced to six years and former city Building and Zoning Director Jeff Lawson was sentenced to about a year in prison after pleading guilty in an unrelated federal corruption case.
Union County Supervisor Donnie Betenbaugh has also been arrested and charged with extortion, conspiracy, accepting bribes and obstruction, and former Union County Tax Assessor Willie Randall Jr. was arrested and charged in the same case involving financial hyjinks and kickbacks related to the purchase of a piece of property.
Not enough? There's more:
court papers accuse Betenbaugh of allowing Randall to use the tax assessor's office as a "stash house" for storing and distributing cocaine and hydrocodone. . . .In a separate indictment, Randall and Union County resident Lapriest Darnell Beacham are charged with conspiracy since 2007 to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and 50 grams or more of a mixture containing methamphetamine. Beacham also faces three additional counts of distributing cocaine.
In a fourth indictment, Union County resident Willard Dee Farr was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion, aiding and abetting Morgan and Lawson, and making false statements.
On February 9th, Union County Clerk of Court Brad Morris resigned as SLED announced that they were investigating his office's bank accounts. Following the resignation, Governor Sanford has appointed a 27 year law enforcement veteran, Freddie Gault, to the position (how law enforcement experience qualifies someone to be the Clerk of Court or why you would want a cop in this position I am not sure).
