{"id":5141,"date":"2018-02-11T17:43:25","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T22:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/?p=5141"},"modified":"2018-02-11T17:43:25","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T22:43:25","slug":"victims-of-political-corruption-object-to-paying-for-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/2018\/02\/11\/victims-of-political-corruption-object-to-paying-for-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Victims of political corruption object to paying for crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen<\/strong> hears arguments in the sentencing hearing<\/a> of former Rep. Rick Quinn<\/strong> (R-Lexington) on Monday, she will also be considering who should pay to replace him in the legislature.<\/p>\n

While Judge Mullen has the discretion to add the cost of the special election to Quinn’s sentence, a bill is pending in the legislature to require prosecutors to include the cost of special elections to their sentencing recommendations.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Quinn was indicted by the state grand jury last April for misappropriating $4 million over a number of years in office.<\/p>\n

At a December hearing, Quinn pled guilty to one misdemeanor charge of failing to report a $28,000 payment from the University of South Carolina. Special Prosecutor David Pascoe told Judge Mullen “there has been no one more corrupt than Rick Quinn.”<\/p>\n

Judge Mullen has been asked to apply the state law (17-25-322) that allows a judge to require restitution to victims for financial damage.<\/p>\n

“Rick Quinn has pled guilty to abusing the trust of his constituents, as well as misappropriating money,” said Brett Bursey<\/strong>, a resident of Quinn’s Lexington County district and director of the SC Progressive Network<\/a>. “As a voter in House District 69 and a Lexington County taxpayer, I will be paying a portion of the county’s and State Election Commission’s costs to hold an election for Quinn’s replacement.”<\/p>\n

Chris Whitmire of the State Election Commission cited the county’s estimated cost at $17,000 for opening a limited number of precincts. The SEC’s cost is projected to be $36,000.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to cost state taxpayers over $1 million to replace the legislators recently convicted of crimes,” said John Crangle<\/strong>, the Network’s government relations director. \u201cIt\u2019s the worst I\u2019ve ever seen it,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t had representation in the Senate since last April because John Courson<\/strong> was charged with embezzling campaign funds. If he\u2019s found guilty, county and state taxpayers face a bill of over $100,000 for a special election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Fanning<\/strong> (D-Fairfield) filed the Special Elections Restitution Act (S-533) in January 2017, before the recent indictments of Quinn and suspended Sen. Courson. The bill has been assigned to a Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Sen. Chip Campsen<\/strong> (R-Charleston), with Sen. Tom Young<\/strong> (R-Aiken) and Sen. Fanning<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen hears arguments in the sentencing hearing of former Rep. Rick Quinn (R-Lexington) on Monday, she will also be considering who should pay to replace him in the legislature. While Judge Mullen has the discretion … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-network-newsevents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5143,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5141\/revisions\/5143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}