2 weeks Ago
RIDGELAND — For the third consecutive election cycle, the Jasper County sheriff's race pits Democrat and current incumbent Donald Hipp against Republican challenger Christopher Malphrus, who previously held the office. The winner will helm an agency with jurisdiction over what was recently the fastest-growing county in the state, home to the quickly multiplying population centers of Ridgeland and Hardeeville. Malphrus, who served as sheriff from 2017 to 2021, said he is a lifelong Republican, but ran as a Democrat in the past two elections because it was politically expedient.
The county's political leaning began to change in recent years. During the 2022 election, GOP candidates won more votes in every Jasper County contest, from the governor's race to the treasurer's battle. Now, Malphrus is running on the other side of the aisle.
Asked if he was concerned voters would find his political party jumping disingenuous, Malphrus said, "I don't think so. If you're a local person and you're from Jasper County and you understand politics, then you understand that's how it has to be done." Both candidates have law enforcement tenures that span more than two decades.
Each began their careers at detention centers before joining policing agencies in the state's southernmost county. To win, Malphrus will need to overcome questions about his prior approach to search-and-seizure, a stack of lawsuits and allegations of overspending. Hipp will need to surmount critical assertions about rising crime on his watch.
Hipp's goals include further developing relationships with the community, increasing transparency and accountability, and improving the department's technology. Malphrus also hopes to strengthen community relations while increasing drug enforcement and curbing violent crime. The Jasper County school board just expelled their suspended superintendent.
Here's what we know. Hipp was inspired to go into law enforcement by his uncle, who worked for the Ridgeland Police Department and Jasper County Sheriff's Office. Hipp first worked in security on Hilton Head Island, then joined the county jail before being recruited for the sheriff's office in 1991.
The perils of drug dependency spurred Malphrus' career in policing. His mother died from a drug addiction when he was 16. He joined the town of Ridgeland as a police officer in 1999.
That's where he began aggressively taking on the drug trade. Malphrus said he believes in aggressive policing and wants to pair strict drug enforcement with programs for people who struggle with chemical dependency. His tactics have gotten him in trouble in the past.
While Malphrus was an officer with Ridgeland, his approach to search-and-seizure resulted in criticisms about his credibility. In 2008, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone learned that Malphrus and other Ridgeland officers were seizing money during traffic stops and turning it over to the federal government rather than the state. This practice allowed the police department to take a larger cut of the proceeds and deprived the state and the local prosecutor's office from getting a share.
Stone questioned the legality of the approach and requested then-Attorney General Henry McMaster issue an opinion on the matter. McMaster's opinion stated that officers could not simply fork over cash to the federal government without state or local prosecuting agencies' consent. According to Stone, Malphrus and Ridgeland continued turning to the federal government in spite of McMaster's determination.
Years later, a court ruling also found that Malphrus acted improperly during traffic stops. In August 2012, four circuit court cases were consolidated because they shared similar fact patterns, and one arresting officer — Malphrus, who was a lance corporal with Ridgeland at the time. Over a little more than a year, Malphrus conducted three traffic stops on Interstate 95.
The court found that Malphrus stopped two of the cars without probable cause or reasonable suspicion and he unduly extended the scope and duration of each inquiry. Malphrus used pre-written computer templates to document those traffic stops, using predetermined facts to justify the encounters, Circuit Judge J. Michael Baxley wrote in a May 2013 order.
The judge also found that Malphrus' written statements and testimony often did not match video evidence of the busts. "The court finds that the arresting officer in these cases has a significant credibility problem," Baxley wrote. Beaufort and Jasper county residents now eligible for federal assistance following Helene Malphrus told The Post and Courier his tactics were in line with the requirements for building federal drug cases, as the Ridgeland Police Department was doing at the time.
Those practices would not have been allowed under state law but were consistent with the federal system, he said. Malphrus said he tried to explain this situation to Stone. But the prosecutor wasn't persuaded.
Today's Top Headlines Story continues below Trader Joe's is coming to the Myrtle Beach area. The question is where. These Myrtle Beach tiny homes are supposed to house homeless veterans.
Why are they empty? No. 1 Gamecocks ready for second and final exhibition This historic Black neighborhood is surrounded by Myrtle Beach but not part of the city. Why? Boeing's original Dreamliner is now a sales bust.
What will the SC planemaker do about it? 70 years ago, Myrtle Beach faced one of its worst disasters: Hurricane Hazel 4 of the country's fastest-growing churches are in this SC county, a new report shows Prayers Are Pouring In For Hospitalized NASCAR Driver Horry County man faces no charges for killing North Myrtle Beach man. Prosecutor explains. 61-year-old SC flight attendant joins Snoop Dogg's team on 'The Voice' Stone told the newspaper that while differences exist between federal and state search-and-seizure laws, there is "nothing that would significantly change any process that he was doing.
" Following Baxley's ruling, Stone listed Malphrus as a non-credible witness on his office's so-named Brady List, a registry of law enforcement officials with histories of dishonesty and integrity issues. Malphrus continued with his law enforcement career, running for sheriff in 2016 as a Democrat. He defeated Hipp, who petitioned onto the ballot, by 1,298 votes.
Hipp then left the sheriff's agency to join Stone's office as a criminal investigator. Malphrus' four-year tenure was dogged by allegations of improper policing and overspending, which he ascribes to political retribution, a byproduct of his aggressive style, and a constantly changing legal landscape. The department was sued regarding six incidents that occurred while he was sheriff; the allegations range from improper policing to traffic accidents.
Lawsuits concerning five of those episodes resulted in at least $335,750 in settlement payouts, mostly from the state's Insurance Reserve Fund. The remaining dispute is pending. Malphrus was the subject of two State Law Enforcement Division investigations, in 2020 and 2021, according to an agency spokesperson.
SLED has released scant information about the investigations. One inquiry involved a question about possible official misconduct. Another was related to breach of trust and weapons violations, the spokesperson said.
That investigation was initiated soon after he left office. The Post and Courier has requested documents pertaining to the inquiries; they were not made available by press time. Both investigations were closed without indictments, the spokesperson said.
Beyond questions about policing tactics, county officials raised concerns that the department under Malphrus was exceeding its budget. Officials questioned deputies clocking more overtime than budgeted; unallocated expenditures for salaries, including pay raises and promotions; and unauthorized spending on vehicles and other expenses. The county requested an opinion on the matter from state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who responded that it was the sheriff's office's legal responsibility to live within the spending limits established by County Council, which sets the budget.
Malphrus described the budget-related allegations as politically motivated attempts to "dirty me up" right around the election. He said he had little control over some expense increases, and that the county had not properly attributed revenues that should have flowed into his department's coffers, creating the appearance of overspending. He blamed a now-ousted council member whom he says targeted him because he was not a true Democrat.
Malphrus lost his 2020 reelection bid to Hipp, who won the primary by 695 ballots, almost 13 percent of the vote. Of Malphrus' performance, Hipp said, "If I was a voter, I would beware." Hipp's tenure has endured its own tumult.
The sheriff's office fired deputy and K9 officer Brock Tomlin in February for being dishonest. That termination led to the solicitor's office dismissing five drug-related cases. No lawsuits have been filed to date regarding actions taken under Hipp's leadership.
The Post and Courier requested complaints concerning improper policing under both administrations. Malphrus' campaign Facebook page has touted low crime numbers during his tenure while alleging that those numbers have increased under Hipp. According to SLED tracking, crimes that involve personal confrontation between a victim and offender increased dramatically once Hipp took over — offenses that range from murder to intimidation.
These crime statistics are reliant on agencies reporting their own numbers. In 2020, Malphrus' last year in office, the sheriff's office reported 41 such instances. When Hipp took control in 2021, that increased to 192 crimes.
In 2022, there were 560. Malphrus questioned how Hipp's crime numbers have increased while his budget also grew. For his part, Hipp suggested that Malphrus underreported county crime statistics during his tenure, an assertion that Malphrus refuted.
At the same time, infractions that SLED calls "crimes against society" — which include drug violations, prostitution, gambling and weapons charges — have varied under both administrations. The distinction between the two sheriffs is less clear for these crimes. In 2018, while Malphrus was sheriff, there were 250 of these infractions, the high during his tenure.
The peak during Hipp's tenure was 261 violations, which occurred in 2022. Those numbers have fluctuated for both. This election is Nov.
5..
