SLED had letter implicating Richland County council member in strip club allegations
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has acknowledged that agents met with Richland County officials three years ago to discuss a letter accusing a county council member of receiving sexual favors in exchange for a deal favorable to a local strip club.
A SLED spokesman said last week there was no available information regarding an inquiry or investigation into the letter’s claims that the council member received sexual favors in exchange for a deal that benefited the Platinum Plus strip club. The letter purportedly was sent by a stripper at the club.
But in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The State on Monday, the agency produced a letter it received from former county administrator Gerald Seals.
SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby told The State on Monday that he could not provide any other “releasable information or documents.”
Seals said Monday that he and two county attorneys met with SLED Chief Mark Keel and other law enforcement officers to discuss concerns about the letter in 2016. A document provided by SLED titled “confidential request for assistance” and dated Dec. 19, 2016, shows that Seals wrote Keel to request an investigation following their meeting.
“This is to request on behalf of Richland County that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division conduct whatever inquiry or investigation may be appropriate of the potential criminal implications of the letter and matter we discussed on December 16, 2016,” Seals wrote.
Crosby could not say what the agency did with the letter following the meeting. The S.C. attorney general’s office and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department both told The State last week they had no record of the allegations. An attorney for Platinum Plus denied having ever seen the letter, which was signed by “Diamond and friends.”
Richland County was already the subject of a state grand jury investigation into its penny tax transportation program, which was launched in 2017. Councilman Joe Walker has also requested a law enforcement investigation into other allegations of misconduct by former administrator Gerald Seals.
Seals said Monday that he didn’t initially remember writing the letter to SLED but it, along with the original “Diamond and friends” letter, were delivered to SLED by the county’s legal department.
County attorney Larry Smith said last week he would not comment on the matter. The State is not identifying the council member named in the letter because its source could not be determined.
The letter about Platinum Plus came to light after Councilwoman Dalhi Myers mentioned it in a letter of her own last week. In a letter opposing councilman Paul Livingston’s bid for a second consecutive term as council chairman, Myers listed several concerns she had about previous council behavior.
Among the “inappropriate conduct” of some council members was their retaliation against Seals for sending the “Diamond and friends” letter to SLED, Myers wrote in her letter.
Livingston was ultimately re-elected by his fellow council members last Tuesday, and Myers was re-elected to another term as vice chair.
Reporter Sarah Ellis contributed to this report.
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