A former SLED agent who pleaded guilty to assaulting two former lovers – one, another SLED agent; and one, an assistant prosecutor – walked out of the Richland County Courthouse a free man Monday.
Rodney Bostick, 27, who had been in jail 13 months pending Monday’s court hearing, was given two sentences of 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to two charges of assault and battery in the third degree.
Circuit Court Judge Robert Hood gave Bostick credit for the year and a month that he had been held without bond awaiting trial as an inmate at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
Under a plea agreement, charges of kidnapping, misconduct in office and domestic violence were dropped against Bostick. With those charges dropped, the maximum sentence that Hood could give Bostick was 30 days.
Under a federal law aimed at preventing domestic abuse, Bostick’s plea means he cannot ever possess a weapon. Two restraining orders prevent him from ever contacting the victims. His name also will be entered in the National Crime Information Center, a database that will let police across the country know of his criminal record.
In one case, in November 2015, Bostick was living with an assistant prosecutor in the Midlands when she told him to pack up his things. At that, he choked her and “told her the only way out was death,” said prosecutor Carson Penney, explaining the case to Judge Hood.
In the second case, in January 2016, Bostick and a SLED agent were living together in Lexington County when “they argued, he choked her and she freed herself by digging her keys into his arm,” Penney told the judge.
SLED’s internal affairs unit began investigating the incidents a few months later. In July 2016, Bostick was arrested and fired by SLED chief Mark Keel. In October 2016, he was jailed without bond after he was involved in another incident with one of the victims.
Bostick’s lawyer, Rauch Wise of Greenwood County, told Hood that his client is a U.S. Air Force veteran who graduated from The Citadel after playing football and has learned his lesson.
“He wants to get on with his life,” Wise told the judge. “His attitude is as good as anybody I’ve ever represented.”
One of Bostick’s victims spoke in court, telling the judge she doesn’t want to see him ever again. “The most important thing to me is to make sure I do have a permanent restraining order.”
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