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  • Fatal crash near Jenkinsville

    WINNSBORO – Fairfield County Coroner’s Office and South Carolina Highway Patrol are investigating a motor vehicle accident that occurred in the morning hours of Dec. 11, 2023, according to Chris Hill, Fairfield County Coroner.

    According to Hill, 23 year old Bryson Burgess, of Lexington, SC, was the driver of a vehicle that was traveling on Old Jenkinsville Rd. when he went through a stop sign at Hwy 213.

    The vehicle Mr. Burgess was driving was struck in the driver’s door by a pick-up truck traveling on 213 towards Hwy 215. Mr. Burgess and his passenger were transported to Prisma Health Richland Memorial where Mr. Burgess succumbed to his injuries.

    The incident remains an active investigation by Fairfield County Coroner’s Office and South Carolina Highway Patrol.

  • Griffin fires Black, Burnett, releases MPA legal expenses

    BLYTHEWOOD – At a noon press conference on Monday at Doko Manor, newly elected Blythewood Mayor Sloan Griffin announced that the town of Blythewood has incurred almost $700,000 in fees with two law firms since April of 2021 for its legal entanglement with MPA Strategies, the Town’s former marketing firm.

    Griffin also announced that the Town has fired the two firms – one last week and the other less than an hour before the press conference. All together the Town was paying for five attorneys, and the Town’s insurance company is paying an additional attorney who is defending the Town’s former mayor, Bryan Franklin, for a defamation case filed by MPA.

    The Shannon Burnett law firm, to which the Town paid $238,753.75 for the MPA legal matters, was terminated on Dec. 6.

    The Maynard Nexsen law firm (formerly Nexsen Pruet) has been paid a total of $314,087.52 for its attorneys’ work on MPA. That firm’s legal team, led by attorney David Black, was sent a letter of release and termination at 11:36 a.m., Monday, Dec. 11.

    Griffin said invoices from those two firms are still outstanding in the amount of $141,633.09 as of Dec. 1, 2023. He said there could, in addition, be more invoices.

    Ashley Hunter, CEO of MPA Strategies, said this of Mayor Griffin’s announcement, “After three years of nefariously spending almost $700,000 in public dollars behind the public’s back, today is an enormous victory for the citizens of Blythewood. Newly-elected Mayor Griffin and the new administration have made great strides in returning transparency and dignity to a South Carolina town that has so much to offer.

    “As for the lawsuits; I look forward to putting the defamatory statements and the unrelenting intimidation tactics from the Town’s previous Mayor behind me,” she said.

    See a breakdown of expenses released by the Town:

    This story was updated December 13, 2023 at 12:28 p.m. EST.

  • Town terminates outside attorney Shannon Burnett

    BLYTHEWOOD – After Mayor Sloan Griffin didn’t appear to be ready to fire any of the Town’s attorneys at Tuesday night’s special called meeting, he did just that two days later.

    Burnett

    Griffin sent outside attorney Shannon Burnett of Shannon Burnett Law Firm in Blythewood a letter of termination on Thursday, Dec. 8.

    Burnett was working closely with David Black, the Town’s lead attorney on the MPA legal issues.

    “Per the motion and approval granted to my office at the Nov. 28, 2023, Town of Blythewood council meeting, I am hereby terminating the attorney client relationship with The Law Office of Shannon Burnett, Inc.,” Griffin wrote.

    “Effectively immediately, you will cease all legal proceedings, filings, requests, depositions, and other actions not explicitly named regarding case numbers 2021CP4003205, 2023CP4000492 and case number 2018C4005647, if applicable.”

    “Failure to comply with this termination,” Griffin wrote, “may result in a breach of contract and I have been authorized by council to seek any necessary remedies in the event of a lack of cooperation.”

    Burnett was hired in November, 2020, as the town attorney to handle legal work on ordinances and other legal issues that cropped up in town hall. In September, 2021, Burnett submitted a letter of resignation, but that resignation was controversial since she submitted it to the town administrator instead of to her boss, the town council. But the resignation never materialized. Burnett was, instead, paid by the Town as an outside attorney and worked closely with Black on MPA issues.

  • Two juveniles arrested in BW with gun

    Ten Richland County Sheriff’s vehicles converged on Langford-Nord property when two juveniles were arrested. | Barbara Ball

    BLYTHEWOOD – Two male juveniles were arrested in downtown Blythewood after a Richland County Deputy spotted them and another male juvenile walking from The Pointe Apartments on Main Street and hopping over a fence into private property.

    The incident occurred at about 11:30 a.m., Friday, Dec.1 on the Blythewood Historical Society & Museum property, which is located at the intersection of McNulty Road and Main Street (Hwy 21).

    According to the incident report, when a deputy stopped to talk to the juveniles, they each gave her what turned out to be false names. After the juveniles were quizzed as to why they were not in school, they gave answers, then changed their answers, a deputy said.

    After a deputy explained to the younger juvenile that he was not allowed, at his age, to have cigars in his pocket, and that he was too young to smoke, the juvenile was allowed to walk on. Then he returned and began cursing the officers, according to the report. The deputy put the juvenile in handcuffs and as a scuffle ensued, according to an RCSD Public Information Officer, the deputy put the juvenile on the ground as he screamed and fought the officer according to the report.

    At one point, 10 sheriff’s deputies’ vehicles were on scene, and a small crowd gathered.

    As another deputy attempted to place the other juvenile in the deputy’s car to return the juvenile to school, it was discovered that the juvenile had a gun – a 9mm Smith and Wesson – on his left hip.

    A third juvenile ran off and eluded the officers.

    When deputies ran the gun through the NCIC, they found it was stolen out of Lexington County, according to the report.

    The juvenile with the gun was charged with unlawful carry of a weapon, possession of a stolen handgun and possession of a handgun under the age of 18.

    The other juvenile was charged with Breach of Peace.

  • Fairfield sheriff reports human skull found off Hwy 215 S.

    FAIRFIELD COUNTY – A human skull was found off Highway 215 S. about 3 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 30, according to Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery.

    “A logging crew working in the area called our dispatcher about 3 p.m. to report they had come across a skull,” Montgomery said.

    “Our deputies were on scene shortly after the call came in, and they reported the skull to the Fairfield Coroner’s office,” Montgomery said. “There were no other related items found in the area where the skull was found, and the skull appears to have been there for a long time.”

    While one media outlet reported that a body was also found, Montgomery said that was misinformation.

    “No body was found, just the skull and it appears maybe a couple of rib bones. We have no more information about that at this time,” Montgomery said. “Our office, along with the Coroner’s office, will be investigating, but right now we don’t know more than that it is a human skull.”

    According to Fairfield Coroner Chris Hill, Dr. Bill Stevens, a forensic anthropologist with the Richland County Coroner’s office has the remains and will be identifying whether the skull belonged to a male or female and a time frame for how long the remains have been there.

    The Voice will share more information as it becomes available.

    This story was updated December 6, 2023 at 5:56 p.m.

  • Fatal crash on Greenbrier-Mossydale Road

    FAIRFIELD COUNTY – A fatal crash occurred at about 8:21 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 25, on Greenbrier-Mossydale Road near Paper Road, about seven miles south of Winnsboro, according to S.C. Highway Patrol Master Trooper Mitchell Ridgeway.

    The driver, Darryl Wayne Pearson, 61, of Winnsboro, died at the scene according to the Fairfield County Coroner’s Office. Pearson was the only occupant in the car.

    The crash involved one vehicle, a 1996 Buick Sedan that was traveling south on Greenbrier-Mossydale Road. The car crossed center line, traveled off the roadway to the left, and struck several trees.

    The crash is being investigated by the S.C. Highway Patrol and the Fairfield County Coroner’s Office.

    This story was updated November 30, 2023 at 10:50 a.m.

  • Fairfield County Council chair caught removing campaign sign

    Fairfield County Council chair pulls up Blythewood Town Council candidate Donald Brock’s campaign sign.

    WINNSBORO – Fairfield County’s council chairman has gotten involved in Town of Blythewood politics.

    On Oct. 27, security camera footage captured Council Chairman Doug Pauley removing a campaign sign belonging to Blythewood Councilman Donald Brock, who, days later, won re-election.

    The footage recorded Pauley pulling up a sign, and then tossing it into the back of his pickup truck and snapping the tonneau cover shut.

    The sign had been posted on property at 303 Main Street, which is leased by The Voice newspaper. Pauley and two other tenants sublease offices in the building from The Voice.

    According to Brock, he had permission from the newspaper to place the signs outside the building.

    Voice publisher Barbara Ball said she has never restricted who could post campaign signs on the property and has never asked anyone to remove one.

    The sign was removed five times in a little over a week.

    The Richland County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating the sign theft, and Brock has stated in the incident report that he plans to file charges.

    “I was advised by an attorney to press charges,” Brock said. “What the ultimate resolution is, I don’t know yet.”

    Shortly after two local television stations broadcast the surveillance video of Pauley removing the sign, Pauley contacted The Voice’s publisher, saying he took the sign down because he didn’t want it in front of his office. Pauley said he thought it would hurt his business, according to Ball.

    Pauley declined to comment when contacted Tuesday by The Voice.

    “I said what I needed to say to Richland County and that’s the only statement I will make at this time,” Pauley said. “It might be a future date that I do a story outlining what really happened in the case, but as of right now, no comment.”

    What the law says

    A Richland County sheriff’s deputy told The Voice that the investigation into sign removal is ongoing.

    The deputy said investigators are trying to determine whether removing the signs was a criminal or ethical violation.

    S.C. Code 7-25-210 specifically classifies the theft of campaign signs as a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and/or a $100 fine.

    “It is unlawful to deface, vandalize, tamper with, or remove a lawfully placed political campaign sign prior to the election without the permission of the candidate or party,” the law states.

    The South Carolina State Ethics Act is actually part of Section 8, not Section 7, of state law. Campaign sign theft isn’t mentioned anywhere in the act.

    According to a heavily redacted incident report, an unidentified political candidate later confirmed to be Brock said he got permission from The Voice to place political signage outside the building.

    According to the report, the deputy contacted the suspect, who agreed to be interviewed.

    Disappearing Act

    Brock said he placed the first sign outside The Voice’s offices on Oct. 15. That sign and two others were removed and replaced within that week.

    On Thursday, Oct. 26, after Brock replaced the sign a fourth time, The Voice’s publisher asked a third party to install a surveillance camera on the property.

    At about 8:30 a.m. the following morning, the camera recorded Pauley removing the sign. The Voice provided Brock with a clip from the surveillance video, and he installed a fifth sign in the same spot a few days later.

    That sign disappeared Tuesday, Oct. 31, when the building’s internet service, which fed the surveillance camera, went off at 9:31 a.m. When the internet service and surveillance resumed, the sign was gone.

    Jay Bender, a media law attorney with the S.C. Press Association, confirmed that the theft of campaign signs violates state law.

  • Blythewood Artists Guild hosts Holiday Market

    BLYTHEWOOD – The 2023 Holiday Market at The Manor last week was full of holiday gifts and goodies for giving or keeping. If you missed it and still have shopping to do, here are the names and phone numbers of some of the vendors. They have many items ready to go …and some can provide custom orders as well. So get in touch.

    Maime Turner and Tamara Day with Knot Board Designs (803-960-6669).
    Blythewood crafter Ann Byrum shows off one of the lighted ceramic Christmas trees she created for the Blythewood Artisans Market sale. Clay Canvas Ceramics (803-318-7552)
  • Major road construction coming for Blythewood

    Map/Ashley Ghere

    BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood Town Council passed a resolution last month expressing support for the major road construction projects being planned in conjunction with the arrival of Scout Motors.

    The town’s agreement with the South Carolina Department of Transportation makes a commitment to support the projects, which will include a new Interstate 77 interchange, a new railroad crossing over Interstate 77, and the realignment of Wilson Boulevard to allow railroad access, as well as any relevant relocation of utilities.

    Brooks Bickley, project lead for SCDOT, was present Monday to answer council members’ questions.

    “My understanding,” he said when asked about the purpose of the resolution, “is that we want to make sure that everybody’s on the same page with this agreement and the project is moving forward, and you guys are all in agreement that we want this to happen and we’re trying to work together on it.”

    Town Administrator Carroll Williamson said that assisting, on the town’s part, will mean trying to keep everyone informed and minimize the impact on drivers during the height of the construction in 2024 and 2025.

    “In this particular case, we don’t have utilities, so we just want to be able to facilitate however we can,” Williamson said.

    Bickley said the highway department is entering the procurement process for the interchange and connector road (from the interstate to U.S. Highway 21) and will begin construction in the summer of 2024 on this project.

    The railroad bridge, a separate project, will begin around the same time frame and will take about one year, he said.  

    He said additional road improvement projects taking place as part of the project – involving Blythewood, Muller, Syrup Mill, and Community Roads – will all be completed in time for the Scout Motors opening in late 2026.

    The Blythewood, Muller, and Syrup Mill Road improvements are expected to be complete by the fall of 2025, with the Community Road project expected to be complete by mid-2026.

    More information about the projects can be found on the Scout Motors development page at https://scoutblythewood.com/ and on the SCDOT project page at https://i77exit26.com/.

    Peddler Business License Increases

    Also at last month’s meeting, the Blythewood Town Council approved, on first reading, an update to the town’s business license structure that will treat peddlers the same as other businesses.

    Williamson said this is to meet a new requirement that an updated class schedule for business licenses, based on census and industry data, be approved by the end of the calendar year.

    “So, if a peddler were selling groceries, they would have the same [business license] rate class as a grocery store,” Williamson said. “This is something that all municipalities are required to do to comply with the statute by the end of 2023.”

  • News Analysis: The Voice answers Franklin’s scathing press release

    BLYTHEWOOD – On Saturday, Mayor Bryan Franklin issued a rebuttal to a story that appeared in The Voice on Oct. 26, 2023, titled, ‘Franklin continues to hide Town’s expenses for MPA lawsuits’ with the following subtitle: ‘Town’s legal expenses could be approaching $800,000.’

    The story recounts how the Town has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last almost three years on two lawsuits and a countersuit involving marketing firm MPA Strategies, The Town, and Franklin.

    Franklin

    But, for some reason, the Town will not release how much money it has spent defending those lawsuits. 

    Councilman Eddie Baughman signs checks related to the suits, so he would know something about how much has been spent and who it is being paid to. Franklin has been given the power through a vote by the council majority to handle all MPA/Town legal matters, including filing lawsuits. But he and Baughman do not share their information about the Town’s legal expenses, not even with the other council members, according to the members.

    The issue began when Franklin and Baughman lost a 3-2 vote to hire a marketing firm for the Town in February, 2021. Councilman Sloan Griffin, Larry Griffin and Donald Brock voted to hire MPA Strategies, a firm that represents several other towns in South Carolina. Franklin and Baughman said they wanted to hire the Blythewood Chamber to do the Town’s marketing. 

    Hurt feelings over the vote, rumors and lawsuits have ensued. Franklin and Attorney David Black have publicly and increasingly accused The Voice’s publisher, Brock and now Franklin’s mayoral opponent, Sloan Griffin, of somehow co-conspiring with MPA CEO Ashley Hunter to defraud the Town.

    In a press release issued earlier this week and in another piece he posted on Facebook yesterday, Franklin outlines what he calls false information printed in the Oct. 26 story in The Voice.

    Here, The Voice will address accusations made in the press release, with Franklin’s comments printed in bold. The story he complains about can be read here.

    Franklin writes: “This headline is intentionally misleading and patently false …,” referring to the $800,000.

    Information about how much the Town is spending on outside legal expenses has been written about previously in The Voice, and the amounts spent were taken directly from the town’s budget. According to budget information on the Town’s website, it spent $152,500 on outside legal expenses in FY 2021-22 and $199,885 in FY 2022-23, well over $300,000. Included in those amounts is $89,445.43 in specific MPA legal expenses that are available on the Town’s Account Quick-Report for January – December 2021 and provided to The Voice last year by Black.

    In an FOI (Freedom of Information) response received by The Voice (from the Town) on Oct. 10, 2023, Black wrote: “…as you are aware, the Town has spent more than $200,000 defending Ms. Hunter’s baseless lawsuits.” But neither Franklin, Baughman nor the attorneys will say how much more.

    In addition to that, the legal budget has been increased to $500,000 for this current fiscal year alone. And the Town has already spent 36.62% ($183,083.03) of that in the first three months of this fiscal year (July, August, and September) for an actual total of $536,516.35 spent on outside legal since the MPA/Town legal expenses began accumulating in the spring of 2021.

    Based on the numbers above, The Voice estimates $800,000, but the Town will not release the actual expenses. However $800,000 is not an unrealistic number considering the on-going legal proceedings since early 2021 with sometimes as many as five high-end attorneys billing the Town.

    Franklin writes: “Ball says ‘Franklin continues to prohibit the Town’s attorneys from revealing to the public, the media, and even some town council members, how much the town has spent.’ This is also false. I have never once directed any town attorney to withhold FOI’ed information…”

    The issue is not whether Franklin directed the attorneys to withhold the information. The issue is that he will not release the information to the public, to council members or to the media. And he has been given the authority to do so by a council majority vote (see more below).

    An Attorney General’s opinion says elected officials are entitled to review financial documents itemizing town legal expenses, according to the S.C. Attorney General’s Office in a June 19 opinion.

    “It is this Office’s opinion that an elected official has the right to access financial documents possessed by the governmental entity that he or she is elected to oversee,” the opinion states.

    “It is illegal for the Town to withhold the attorney fee agreement entirely as that does not allow the residents of Blythewood to understand any better how their taxpayer funds are being spent,” said Taylor Smith, who represents the S. C. Press Association.

    “Assuming these invoices even do have such confidential information, the state’s open records laws (FOIA) allow redaction of that info, not refusal to release the entire record,” Smith said.

    Franklin writes: “Ball says in the story that ‘Franklin has the authority – given by council – to reveal how much the Town has spent on MPA legal costs. He has so far chosen not to reveal those costs to the public and even to some of his council members. This statement is also false. I do not have the authority to override the legal opines of town attorneys, nor can I put the town at risk by acting in such a way that revealing attorney-client privileged information would do harm to our citizens.”

    According to a motion made by Town Councilman Rich McKenrick and passed by the council majority on May 12, 2022, council authorized Franklin to take any action whatsoever in regard to the Town’s legal proceedings with MPA and others, including The Voice.

    That motion, approved by council, reads in full: “This council affirms and approves all actions taken on behalf of the Town by the mayor, Carroll Williamson, and on behalf of the Town by its attorney Shannon Burnett and Nexsen Pruet Law Firm regarding all matters related to MPA Strategies, Ashley Hunter, State and Frink, Donald Brock, The Voice, and Barbara Ball et al and that such representation by and hiring of such attorneys is hereby reaffirmed and shall continue until further resolutions are made including any claims and counter claims filed, answered, appealed or any ancillary issues.”

    As for Franklin’s reference to attorney-client privileged information, Jay Bender, a media law attorney representing the SC Press Association said, “I think that claiming that how much a local government is paying an attorney is subject to attorney-client privilege is total hogwash. There might be elements of the claim regarding strategy or witness identification that can be redacted, but how much is being spent by the Town of Blythewood is public information.”

    Franklin writes: “Ms. Ball goes on to list ‘the four main attorneys who represent the Town and Franklin.’ Another known falsehood. The only attorney who has been retained to represent me in an individual capacity by the town’s insurer is David Morrison.”

    As was stated in The Voice’s story, David Morrison does represent Franklin, but Maynard Nexsen’s Attorney David Black represents both the Town and Bryan Franklin according to the Richland County Public Index. Also, there are now five attorneys not four being paid by the Town for MPA legal matters. Alexandra Austin now also represents the Town.

    Franklin writes: “…she (Ball) leaves out the known fact that I along with the town administrator acted in good faith at the outset of this case and spent an entire day attempting to amicably reach an agreement even though the town has done nothing wrong that I have seen or been advised of. The parties could not agree on a settlement.”

    That information was not left out of the story. The story included it in this sentence: “In a Facebook comment on Tuesday of this week, Franklin said he has, from the beginning, been ready to settle the legal matters with MPA.” 

    Franklin writes: “Ms. Ball writes that, ‘[Attorney Shannon] Burnett also works on the MPA/Town legal matters for the Town and Franklin’ …This too is false. Ms. Burnett has never worked for me in any individual capacity. She was formerly the Town attorney and has been retained to represent the Town in the MPA cases.”

    As Franklin’s protests attempt to deflect from what the story is about, it may also be a case of splitting hairs as to whether Burnett is working on both the Town’s defense and Franklin’s. 

    Either way, the point of the story is not whose defense Burnett is working on, but why Franklin or the Town’s legal team won’t reveal how much the Town has paid the attorneys (including Burnett) for their work on the MPA/Town/Franklin cases.

    There are numerous other accusations and complaints made by Franklin in this and other emails and postings he has made recently – too numerous to address here – such as this one that was released by him this week: 

    Franklin writes: “Judge Clifton Newman has sanctioned MPA and Ms. Hunter for destruction of evidence. As part of the sanction, the Court has ruled that Ashley Hunter will owe the Town its substantial litigation discovery costs. You (Ball) have still not shared with your readers this sanction from the court transcript and have not reported on it.”

    The Voice absolutely did report on the hearing and on what the judge said about sanctioning in a story titled, ‘Council may raise FY 2023 legal fees budget to $500,000,’ in the Sept. 14, 2023 issue of The Voice.

    However, Judge Newman did not sanction Ms. Hunter. He said some kind of sanctioning for spoliation (destruction of evidence) was warranted, but Newman left it up to the trial judge to eventually determine the facts and to make a decision concerning sanctions.

    “It’s a unique situation,” Paul Porter, Ashley Hunter’s attorney said. “Ashley had a pre-existing retention policy for her text messages, so she unequivocally denies that she destroyed any evidence and believes no relevant discernable documents were destroyed.”

    Franklin ends his press release “demanding that Ms. Ball and The Voice retract the known falsehoods” in The Voice story.