Richland prosecutor Johnson paid more than $30,000 for gym memberships for staff
Richland County prosecutor Dan Johnson has paid more than $30,000 in public money for gym memberships for his office's staffers during his almost eight years as solicitor.
The money — $32,200 in all — went to local upscale gyms, including Gold's Gym, later rebranded as Muv Fitness.
Muv Fitness provides its members with a jacuzzi and pool, sauna, training classes and movies to watch as exercisers do their cardio exercises, according to the company's website.
The money for the memberships came from the narcotics-seizure account in the 5th Circuit Solicitor's Office. The money in that account comes from assets seized by law enforcement in drug cases around the state and distributed to solicitors. By law, it is to be used for purposes related to drug enforcement.
Johnson, a physical fitness buff who ran track and played football at The Citadel, did not reply to an inquiry asking about the staff memberships. As the elected 5th Circuit solicitor, Johnson oversees prosecutors in Richland and Kershaw counties. He is up for re-election this year for a third term.
Johnson has provided few answers to questions about his office's spending. However, he has denied wrongdoing and said he is conducting an internal investigation into that spending. When it is complete, he will answer questions, he said.
The S.C. attorney general's office has asked the State Law Enforcement Division to conduct a preliminary investigation into Johnson's spending. SLED Chief Mark Keel has assigned two agents to the job.
Questions about Johnson's spending arose after a Columbia nonprofit, Public Access to Public Records, began releasing batches of spending records from Johnson's office from 2011 into November of last year.
PAPR obtained more than 40,000 spending records from Johnson's office using Freedom of Information requests. Thus far, it has released fewer than 20,000. It is releasing the material in batches after redacting personal material, including Social Security numbers and credit card numbers, from the documents.
The five years of gym memberships were for the years 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017, according to those records. Payments for years 2011 and 2015 might be in records that PAPR has yet to release.
The State located five checks written on Johnson's office account for gyms.
▪ June 2012: $6,400 to Gold's Gym
▪ May 2013: $5,900 to Gold's Gym
▪ June 2014: $5,900 to Gold's Gym
▪ July 2016: $6,000 to Muv Fitness
▪ August 2017: $8,000 to St. Andrews Fitness Corp.
Johnson's gym memberships for staffers have been in the news before.
In 2015, Johnson's office prosecuted an assistant Richland County public defender who was charged with falsely claiming to be a member of the 5th Circuit Solicitor's Office in order to get a free Gold's Gym membership.
According to a January 2015 Richland County Sheriff's Department release, the assistant public defender committed a form of "identity theft" by falsely claiming to be an assistant prosecutor. Subsequently, the S.C. Supreme Court suspended, and then re-instated, the law license of the assistant public defender. The lawyer's criminal record since has been expunged — erased from public view.
Public defenders represent people charged with a crime who are too poor to hire a lawyer. As such, they often square off against Johnson's prosecutors in the courtroom.
This story was originally published March 22, 2018 at 6:17 PM with the headline "Richland prosecutor Johnson paid more than $30,000 for gym memberships for staff."