SC governor returns Marlboro County Sheriff Charles Lemon to power

COLUMBIA, S.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — It took 42 hours after a federal jury acquitted the suspended Marlboro County Sheriff for the governor to restore Lemon’s power as the top law enforcer in the county.

Lemon’s spent the past two years and nine months suspended from office.

“Whereas, on August 19, 2024, following a trial before the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina…the jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty,” S.C. Governor Henry McMaster wrote in an executive order rescinding Lemon’s suspension from office.

“Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor of the State of South Carolina and pursuant to the Constitution and Laws of this State and the powers conferred to me therein, I hereby rescind the suspension…and resinatate Charles B. Lemon as Sheriff of Marlboro County.” McMaster’s order continued.

“This Order is effective immediately.”

But Lemon won’t be able to enforce the law even if he were to walk back into work today. His law enforcement certification is still suspended and he’d have to go back before the S.C. Law Enforcement Training Council, a decision-making body that oversees the state’s law enforcement credentialing.

The LETC would have to lift Lemon’s suspension, which could happen as soon as next month’s meeting, according to Major Florence McCants with the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy.

As of the posting of this article, Lemon has not arrived at the sheriff’s office and the governor’s office has not informed Interim Sheriff Larry McNeil of the reinstatement. We do not know whether Lemon will take his office back and the governor’s order appears to be a technical return to power, but may not mean Lemon will take his job back.

Lemon’s defense attorney, Morgan Martin, cast doubt on Lemon returning to finish the remaining four months and 10 days of his unexpired term, “It may well be that he would be entitled to retake the office of sheriff, but I know he has not made a determination to do that. It’s within several months of a new term for sheriff and he didn’t run in either the primaries to be in the general election,” Martin said in an interview with our sister station WBTW in Myrtle Beach on Tuesday.

However in a call with Queen City News Chief Investigative Reporter Jody Barr on Wednesday, Martin said Lemon is considering his next move, “The truthful answer is he’s thinking about that,” Martin said, “We had not reached out to the governor’s office to do this. They did that on their own, automatically,” Martin said.

“Lemon is now the sheriff, and it is a matter of him going back in,” Martin explained by phone, “He is considering his next steps and how to handle this situation and within the next day or so we’ll have an announcement about that.”

Even if Lemon decides to take the sheriff’s office back, his name still will not appear on the November ballot since he missed the state-mandated filing deadlines in March. Lemon’s only hope to win re-election in November would come from a write-in campaign, but the sheriff has not disclosed his plans to continue as sheriff.

Lemon had not answered a text message Barr sent to his cell phone following notice of the governor’s order on Wednesday.

Lemon and former Deputy Andrew Cook were both suspended on Dec. 14, 2021, when the Marlboro County grand jury indicted the men based on a cell phone recording of Cook’s body camera video. Cook’s body camera captured the use of force against Jarrel Johnson, an inmate the lawmen were trying to get into a holding cell on May 3, 2020.

The Cook body camera video disappeared from the sheriff’s office evidence repository sometime after the May 3, 2020, incident. The video remained missing until the fall of 2021 when the head of Lemon’s investigative unit provided a copy of the cell phone recording to both the S.C. Law Enforcement Division and to Barr.

Within weeks of the video resurfacing, Lemon and Cook were indicted, each on misconduct in office and felony assault charges. Lemon was not arrested on the charges on Dec. 14, 2021, and we video-recorded SLED agents helping Lemon move his personal belongings out of the sheriff’s office before an agent gave Lemon a ride home in a SLED pickup truck.

On Dec. 21, 2021, Lemon and Cook showed up for an arraignment hearing and bond setting before Circuit Court Judge Michael Nettles. Nettles set bond on the lawmen, then had them arrested inside the courtroom before they were driven back to the Marlboro County Detention Center to be booked and have their mugshots taken.

The S.C. Attorney General’s Office led the prosecution of Lemon and Cook on the state charges.

Between Dec. 21, 2021, and Jan. 25, 2024, nothing happened in the AG’s prosecution. Court records show not even a single hearing was held.

On Jan. 24, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florence, S.C. announced that a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against both Lemon and Cook, charging them with violating the Civil Rights Act for their use of a Taser against Johnson from the May 3, 2020 jailhouse video recording QCN obtained.

On March 5, 2024, the S.C. Attorney General’s Office dropped its state charges against both Lemon and Cook through what’s known as “nolle prosequi,” which means the courts treat the misconduct in office and the felony assault charges “as if they never existed,” according to McMaster’s August 21, 2024, executive order.

Although Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office abandoned the state charges and allowed the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute Lemon and Cook on the civil rights charge, the AG’s office could reinstate the December 2021 state indictments against the lawmen. The AG could also re-indict the men.

Wilson’s office will not confirm to QCN what it plans to do with the 2021 indictments, but the March 2024 dismissal notes the AG’s office’s dismissal wasn’t the end of the state’s prosecution, noting “nolle process with leave to restore,” the dismissal records filed in Marlboro County show.

As of this report, the state charges have not been restored.

Lemon is also the subject of an active SLED and AG investigation into warrant shredding allegations. The allegations were the subject of our ‘Shredded Justice’ investigative series published in August 2023. The attorney general’s office could have a decision on whether to file charges next month.

We’ll continue to follow any updates involving Marlboro County Sheriff Charles Lemon.

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