Suspended Columbia city councilman could make comeback after deal with prosecution

Suspended Columbia City Council member Moe Baddourah has taken the first steps to getting back on the council by agreeing to enter a pretrial intervention program.

Baddourah, 55, had faced domestic violence charges, second degree, arising from a June 29, 2016, dispute with his wife, from whom he was separated. He was accepted into the program Friday through an agreement between Baddourah, his lawyer, Joe McCulloch, and the 5th Circuit solicitor’s office.

McCulloch said he and Baddourah had been trying for two years to get his case resolved by trial, dismissal or pretrial intervention. But the solicitor’s office did not have a trial date and only recently – after the prosecutor assigned to his case retired and a new prosecutor took up the case – did Baddourah get an offer of pretrial intervention, McCulloch said.

The solicitor’s office had no official comment.

However, a source with the solicitor’s office said Saturday the office did not deliberately delay Baddourah’s case. Numerous complex aspects of the case, including ongoing divorce proceedings between the Baddourahs, which didn’t end until earlier this year, prevented a final resolution to the case, said the source. The source did not want to be identified because of the controversial nature of the matter.

Earlier this year, The State newspaper mentioned Baddourah’s case as one of several high-profile cases languishing for months in the 5th Circuit solicitor’s office.

A pretrial intervention program of indeterminate length will involve counseling for Baddourah, possibly including anger management sessions, and some form of community service, McCulloch said. No judge is involved in the process. It involves no admission of wrongdoing. If Baddourah successfully completes the program, the charges against him will be dropped and his record expunged.

Baddourah believes he would have been found innocent in a jury trial, McCulloch said.

But when Baddourah learned that prosecutors would put his 8-year-old son on the witness stand during the trial, he decided to enter pretrial intervention to spare his child from testifying before a crowded courtroom that would likely include the media and television cameras, McCulloch said.

The case centered on an incident that involved Baddourah allegedly slamming a car door on his estranged wife’s leg in a parking lot after she snatched his cellphone and wouldn’t give it back, according to court records.

“We maintain that this was an unfortunate accident,” McCulloch said.

McCulloch said Baddourah has suffered greatly from the incident, and not just from the negative publicity. He lost his job at the University of South Carolina and was suspended from city council by the governor.

Since Baddourah’s suspension, the council has had just six rather than seven members. He missed debates on issues including Five Points bar closings and proposed new sports facilities at Dreher High School. Some of his constituents have called for him to resign, but Baddourah has refused, saying he had a responsibility to those who elected him.

McCulloch released a statement from Baddourah:

“Three weeks ago I first learned that the prosecution and my ex-wife had decided that they would call my 8-year-old to the witness stand, despite his conflicting statements to our investigators. Though I have waited anxiously for more than two years for my day in court, two things happened in these last three weeks: the very recent news that my child would be required to testify, and for the first time, I was offered pretrial intervention.

“My decision to enroll in pretrial intervention does not require an admission of wrongdoing, as that I could not do, but it does offer a way to avoid my child having to testify in a trial.

“At the time of this incident, I gave the Sheriff’s Department a full statement with nothing to hide and have steadfastly maintained my innocence. My determination to go to PTI is the only recourse as a father, who loves his children more than anything, and would do anything to shield them from harm.

“I am confident of two things: taking this action to avoid putting my child through the gut-wrenching process of a trial is the only responsible thing for a parent to do, and that I would have been exonerated at trial.

“I look forward to soon resuming my duties on council, and those issues and my responsibilities have never been far from my attention.”