Bluffton PD whistleblower led to indictment of sergeant, employee accused of firearm theft

An observant fellow officer helped spark the investigation that led to Thursday’s indictment of two Bluffton police employees , including one sworn sergeant, on accusations of stealing a gun from the department.

Former civilian quartermaster Thomas Rauchfuss, 42, was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly taking a firearm that should have been submitted into the department’s evidence division, according to a release from the Bluffton Police Department. Sgt. Bonifacio Perez, 39, was charged with misconduct in office for allegedly aiding Rauchfuss in stealing the weapon.

Both offenses are misdemeanors punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to Jeff Kidd, a spokesperson for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. He would not specify the number of weapons the men were accused of stealing, a detail also left ambiguous in their indictment documents.

The unnamed officer notified Chief of Police Joseph Babkiewicz on May 8 after seeing Rauchfuss failing to document a firearm that was surrendered by a resident, the department says. That informant was following the police force’s “Duty to Intervene” policy, which requires officers who observe their colleagues violating laws or department policies to report the actions to a higher-up.

Babkiewicz said he was “deeply saddened and disappointed” by the incident but noted that the department’s policies “are in place for this exact reason.”

A Beaufort County grand jury indicted both men on Thursday. Following a direct indictment, defendants are usually summoned to General Sessions Court for a bond hearing. Those proceedings had not yet been scheduled.

Rauchfuss and Perez were placed on paid administrative leave May 9, along with two other sworn officers: Sgt. Matthew Ferrelli and Capt. Scott Chandler, both of whom were not part of Thursday’s indictment. Chandler served as the Bluffton Police Department’s interim chief for brief periods in 2018 and 2020, filling the position’s vacancies for about nine months total.

In response to the misconduct allegations, two agencies launched related investigations in the following days: The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office conducted a short internal probe based on a “policy violation,” while agents at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division led the still-active criminal investigation that eventually resulted in Thursday’s indictments.

Bluffton police announced in mid-July that Rauchfuss had been terminated due to the internal affairs investigation, which the sheriff’s office finished in late July.

Perez remained on paid administrative leave as of Friday afternoon. Chief Babkiewicz would “determine his employment status” after reviewing the sheriff’s final internal repairs report, which will not be released until SLED completes its criminal probe.

Chandler and Ferrelli also remained on paid leave pending the release of the internal affairs report, according to the release.

Who are the 2 indicted employees?

Perez became a sworn officer with the Bluffton Police Department in 2010, receiving positive performance reviews and a number of promotions over the years. He became a sergeant in 2017 and was responsible for overseeing officers and training new recruits. In 2019, he took on the role of a school resource officer supervisor, managing five of the officers posted in Bluffton-area schools and taking charge of police operations in other schools that did not have assigned SROs.

For several years, Perez also acted as the public information officer for the department, handling media requests and the department’s public relations.

In September 2023, a memo distributed in a command staff meeting by Babkiewicz described an “exclusive clique” of four to five officers who would eat lunch together in the same car and respond to incidents in a single vehicle. Perez and Chandler were part of that group, according to reporting from The Post and Courier . The issue was remedied following the meeting, Babkiewicz said.

Rauchfuss was hired in January 2022 as the town’s quartermaster and fleet manager, a civilian position with responsibilities of maintaining and documenting the department’s equipment and vehicles. Before his time at the Bluffton Police Department, he served for 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and was deployed in Iraq, Jordan and other countries.

A disciplinary action form for Rauchfuss says the quartermaster was reprimanded by the department in September 2022 for “lack of consideration for a fellow human being,” with highlights made to the form’s guidelines on violent and profane language as well as threatening or coercing other employees. The document, obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette through a Freedom of Information Act request, does not include specifics of the alleged misconduct. Rauchfuss was required to take part in a verbal counseling program as a result of the disciplinary process, the form says.