Case closed on technicality
A South Carolina woman says she got her day in court after being beat up, but she says she didn’t get justice.
There wasn’t a prosecutor at the jury trial, and the News 2 I-Team finds that’s common, even in violent crimes.
“When I walked in, I was really, really hopeful,” Christine Wueste told the I-Team.
According to the incident report from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to Christine’s 911 call in October 2013.
Christine crashed at her friend’s house after a night out drinking. She woke up to punching and kicking.
Christine suffered bruising on her face and arms. Several of her teeth were cracked and required multiple trips to the dentist. She also underwent months of PTSD counseling following the alleged attack.
Deputies charged her then friend JD Bonds with second degree assault. After months of back and forth with the solicitor’s office, the case was dropped down to the lesser charge of third degree assault.
In December 2015, she finally faced her alleged attacker in a jury trial, but she arrived to a fight that wouldn’t be fair. Because Bonds faced jail time, the court appointed him a public defender. Because the trial would be held in magistrate’s court, a solicitor isn’t required to prosecute.
There was no opening statement, no evidence, no witness list, and no prosecutor.
South Carolina is one of only three states where officers prosecute their own cases other than traffic citations.
Former Attorney General Charlie Condon says a special rule in South Carolina allows arresting officers to prosecute their own cases, but he says it’s not a fair fight in court.
“If you’re not trained, there could be many things that a simple defense attorney will bring up that could result in a dismissal,” Condon explained to News 2’s investigator, Rebecca Collett.
Condon says it happens in courtrooms every day, and that’s exactly what happened in Christine’s case.
In court record audio, exclusively obtained by the News 2 I-Team, the judge explains to the court that jurisdiction wasn’t established in this case.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” the judge said in court. “The officer is forced to prosecute his own case and he’s not an attorney.”
In the trial, the defense attorney raised the questions of jurisdiction. Condon says it’s a simple requirement to prove where a crime happened.
“Jurisdiction is extremely important because the accused has the right to a trial in the jurisdiction where the offense allegedly was committed,’ defense attorney, Brady Vannoy explained. Vannoy has no connection to the case.
That rule forced the judge to find the defendant not guilty, before the jury could weigh in.
Vannoy says problems in court cut both ways.
“There’s innocent people who have been convicted,” he explained. “There’s people who have been victims of crimes who felt like they didn’t get their day in court. We have the greatest justice system in the world, but it’s not perfect.”
Cops learn through trial and error
The Berkeley County Sheriff, Duane Lewis says there’s a big learning curve in court for new deputies, and he admits it would be ideal to have a solicitor handling cases.
“I would love to see that,” he told the News 2 I-Team. “I think it would make a difference in some fashion.”
Officers get 12 hours of courtroom training at the Criminal Justice Academy, but Sheriff Lewis says sometimes it just takes experience to win.
“You can give people all the training in the world, but a lot of times it just comes down to experience in the courtroom and dealing with those obstacles presented to you.”
That’s not comforting to Christine, who sits on the losing side of the learning curve.
“He was a close friend. How you do trust strangers if a close friend would do that? It’s hard but there are worse things like letting this go on and on.”
The sheriff says there are dedicated lawyers handling criminal domestic violence cases in Berkeley County. In Dorchester County, there is a dedicated prosecutor for domestic violence and fraudulent check cases. In Charleston County lawyers handle domestic violence, DUI, and some check fraud.
What’s the fix
Some cities and towns hire special attorneys to prosecute cases, but often it’s up the officers in municipal court as well. More than 60% of law enforcement agencies prosecute their own cases in the summary courts, according to a study by the South Carolina Commission on Prosecution Coordination.
Right now, the House of Representatives is considering a budget that would add millions more to hire more solicitors. The South Carolina Commission on Prosecution Coordination requested $7.8 million to fund hiring more prosecutors for general sessions court. The addition of lawyers would reduce massive caseloads and move cases faster through courts. The Governor also requested more than two million dollars, but this week the Ways and Means committee voted against it.
The budget goes to the full House on floor in the coming weeks. The budget will then go to the 
Senate before making its way to Governor’s desk. In her state of the state address, Governor Haley asked lawmakers to back her efforts to combat criminal domestic violence by hiring more prosecutors to try the cases.
While the changes may be needed, it won’t address cases like Christine’s in magistrates court. Magistrates court handles certain assault cases, domestic violence, DUI, driving with a suspended license, some drug charges, writing fraudulent checks, plus restraining orders, county ordinance and code violation cases, animal control, DNR, evictions and many other cases.
