Suspended Columbia councilman sues McMaster, calls suspension ‘ill-conceived’

Suspended Columbia City Councilman Moe Baddourah has sued the governor, who suspended him earlier this year in connection with a domestic violence case.

The lawsuit filed in Richland County was announced Monday in a Baddourah news release that said Gov. Henry McMaster’s executive order, issued March 13, was “ill-conceived, unlawful and unconstitutional.”

The two-term councilman and onetime mayoral candidate said he filed the complaint in hopes of resuming his duties representing the city’s District 3 “until I am given a chance to clear my name.”

The incident involved arose from an argument Baddourah and his estranged wife had last summer. He is accused of slamming her leg in a car door after an argument in the parking lot of Rockaway Athletic Club restaurant and bar on Rosewood Drive, according to a Richland County Sheriff’s Department report.

McMaster issued the executive order months after Baddourah was charged with second-degree criminal domestic violence. Baddourah has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

“The governor overstepped his authority, and relied on a questionable interpretation of the law to justify suspending me,” Baddourah said in a statement about the lawsuit. “Basically, I believe the governor and others invented a reason to remove me from office.”

Before suspending Baddourah, however, McMaster received an opinion from the S.C. Attorney General’s office, which concluded the governor had the authority.

The opinion concludes that second-degree criminal domestic violence is a “crime of moral turpitude.” That conclusion allowed the governor to act, according to the five-page opinion.

Baddourah argues, however, that the suspension “appears to be unprecedented in this state” for a misdeameanor charge.

“To justify removing me from office, the Governor requested an opinion from the Attorney General, his close political ally, and conveniently received one the next day,” Baddourah said. “However, South Carolina courts have not ruled that misdemeanor accusations such as this meet the standard for suspension, and other states’ rulings have found it they do not.”

This story was originally published July 31, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Suspended Columbia councilman sues McMaster, calls suspension ‘ill-conceived’."