Suspended Speaker’s legal saga continues: Harrell makes $18,000 bond
By John Monk, The State (Columbia, S.C.) | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
A lawyer for Harrell, who will not be able to leave the state without permission, then asked for and was granted court permission for Harrell to attend a
Harrell, 58, was accompanied by his lawyer
After the hearing, Harrell went to a small, closed room off the courtroom, signed paperwork related to his bond and left the courthouse, his face grim.
"I haven't got anything to say at this time," he told a dozen reporters as he walked by without stopping.
At the 10-minute hearing, 1st Circuit Solicitor
Harrell is believed to be the first sitting speaker of the House indicted in state history.
During the hearing, Pascoe gave Daniel a computer flash drive containing some 32,000 pages of investigative material concerning Harrell. That material, although Pascoe did not explicitly say so, apparently contains a massive SLED report on Harrell completed in late 2013.
Now, the SLED case file also includes Harrell's booking photo and fingerprints, both of which were taken after Monday's hearing, said SLED spokesman
U.S. Attorney
Harrell's silence Monday was in stark contrast to public statements he's made to the media for months, in which he has loudly insisted he is the subject of a witch hunt, that the interest by law enforcement in his affairs is politics gone wild, and that he has done nothing wrong.
Harrell's appearance Monday was a climax to a long legal odyssey in which it had appeared that first a state judge and then the
To prosecute Harrell, Pascoe had to maneuver around the state
"Pascoe did an end run -- he outfoxed the
Those complaints convinced Wilson to ask for a SLED investigation.
In January, Wilson announced he would activate a state grand jury, which has subpoena powers, to investigate Harrell. At that time, SLED Chief
Wilson's investigation ran into roadblocks when Harrell's lawyers, Daniel and Howe, filed secret court motions to disqualify Wilson. That behind-the-scenes legal dispute was forced into the open by The State newspaper, which revealed that Harrell's lawyers were trying to shut down an ongoing criminal investigation.
Last spring, Manning held public hearings and basically disqualified Wilson and shut down the grand jury. Wilson appealed to the state
At that time, Wilson -- facing almost certain defeat in Manning's court -- got the
Pascoe got the case
Asked why Wilson was in court since Pascoe is now an independent prosecutor, a spokesman for Wilson's office said, "The attorney general's office has been involved since the beginning of this case, and will remain involved until its conclusion." Under the state Constitution, the attorney general has oversight authority over all prosecutions in the state.
The nine counts against Harrell charge him with illegally using campaign money for his personal expenses, filing false campaign disclosure reports and misconduct in office.
According to the indictments, Harrell used more than
In all, Harrell paid himself "campaign funds totaling approximately
"I have said all along that I have never intentionally violated any law, and I still strongly believe that statement to be accurate," Harrell said after his indictment.
And Hayes allowed with a smile, that he, too, is a Gamecock fan. Hayes, a graduate of USC and the USC law school, was a former
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