A South Carolina sheriff is facing multiple charges after allegedly ordering a deputy to use his Taser on an inmate already in custody, in a disturbing case that shines a fresh spotlight on a state with a long and sordid history of misconduct by elected lawmen.
Marlboro County Sheriff Charles Lemon and former Deputy David Andrew Cook were both indicted on assault and battery and misconduct charges Tuesday in connection with a May 2020 incident involving Jarrell Lee Johnson of Bennettsville at the county jail, according to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office. The indictment alleges that Lemon ordered Cook to deploy his Taser on Johnson at the Marlboro County Detention Center at least twice—including the chest and leg—to subdue him, even though the man was already “inside the jail.”
The indictments immediately prompted Gov. Henry McMaster to suspend Lemon from the post he has held since 2017 and appoint former Bennettsville Chief of Police Larry McNeil as interim sheriff. Cook, meanwhile, was out of a job. “Deputy Cook is no longer employed in law enforcement,” the attorney general’s office added.
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The Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the charges. Neither Lemon nor Cook immediately responded to a request for comment Tuesday, and it was unclear if they had attorneys.
But Lemon, who served as chief deputy in the same department for 12 years prior to securing the top official spot in Marlboro County, is just one of at least a dozen sheriffs in South Carolina to be charged with criminal wrongdoing in the last decade. Prosecutors have accused these elected officials with a slew of crimes, ranging from sexual harassment to accepting bribes to getting inmates to do personal work—all while donning the badge labeling them as one of the pillars in their community.
Seth W. Stoughton, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina who testified in the Derek Chauvin murder trial, told The Daily Beast earlier this year that while “sheriffs are a little weird in most states, South Carolina seems to have a high level of sheriff problems.”
“To some extent, because they are popularly elected, sheriffs reflect the norms and values of their electorate. In progressive cities, you’re going to find progressive sheriffs. Not always but typically. Conservative cities, therefore, have more conservative sheriffs. Like in South Carolina,” he added.
The charges against Lemon and his former deputy came just days after three Marlboro investigators mysteriously resigned from the department.
According to local ABC affiliate WPDE, one of the departed investigators posted on social media about the resignation, inveighing, “Today was my last day wearing this badge. Today I chose my character over corruption. Today I chose my integrity over my income. Today I chose to walk away. I tried to stand up to a historically oppressive and systemically racist institution and tried to be a change and tried to make a change.”
While the details of what led Lemon to allegedly order his deputy to use a Taser on Johnson multiple times remain unclear, a Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office press release from the same day noted that the 34-year-old was arrested after allegedly throwing somebody’s Bible in the trash. When the unnamed individual went to retrieve it, Johnson allegedly “struck him with a baseball bat and his fists several times.”
The statement noted that after Johnson’s arrest, Marlboro County Detention Center asked for help because his behavior was “putting the safety of the jail at risk”—but did not go into detail. Lemon went to the jail himself to help, and the statement claimed he was personally assaulted as Johnson tried to escape his cell. Notably, authorities claimed at the time that neither the sheriff nor Johnson were injured during the scuffle—and did not mention the use of a Taser at all.
“Johnson was detained by Sheriff Lemon and the deputy without injury to Johnson. Sheriff Lemon is fine and in good health,” the release added, noting that Johnson was charged with assaulting a police officer and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.
State records indicate those charges are still pending. Johnson did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
A spokesperson for the attorney general also told The State that Johnson crawled away from officers during the violent incident. The indictment adds that Lemon ordered Cook to use his Taser when it was directly touching Johnson—and again even after the Taser’s prongs were already attached to him.
While the indictment does not indicate whether Johnson was handcuffed at the time, prosecutors said the incident could have caused severe injury or even death.
Shifting ideas about what constitutes legit law enforcement in the state have helped land a long list of South Carolina sheriffs and deputies in hot water. Among them are Florence Sheriff Kenny Boone, who pleaded guilty last December to a domestic violence charge, former Berkeley County Sheriff Way DeWitt—who quit after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced after his DUI arrest—and former Greenville County Sheriff Will Lewis, who was sentenced to a year in prison using public resources to arrange an affair.
Most recently, Chester County Sheriff Alex “Big A” Underwood was convicted in April of corruption and abuse of power after prosecutors alleged he and two other former deputies used their positions to enrich themselves, obstruct investigations, and then cover up their misdeeds.
“Unfortunately, there have been several sheriffs in South Carolina over the past decade who have made extremely poor decisions that disappointed their constituents, their fellow sheriffs, and the entire law enforcement profession,” Jarrod Bruder, the executive director of the South Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, previously told The Daily Beast.
“As an Association, we have stressed ethics and leadership training, so much so that we have made ethics training a component of our statutorily required annual continuing education credits. We have also revamped our Code of Ethics and asked all sheriffs to abide by those requirements. Ultimately, sheriffs who acted unlawfully have been held accountable, as they should have been,” he added.
For his part, Lemon has been named in a slew of lawsuits over the years, including a 2018 federal lawsuit alleging he fired employees for being white. Filed by four former employees, the lawsuit alleged that Lemon wrongfully terminated their employment shortly after he was elected sheriff in Jan. 2017 based on their race. The lawsuit was dismissed last April.
Another lawsuit naming Lemon and filed by a former deputy a year later also alleged discrimination within the department. The lawsuit claimed that Lemon subjected the former employee “to a hostile work environment and ultimately termination after Plaintiff was injured on the job.” In February, that case was also dismissed.
