‘He got paid over $80,000 a year to lie!’ Special prosecutor attacks ex-Rep. Harrison
Accused by defense lawyers Wednesday of bungling a corruption case against ex-state Rep. Jim Harrison, special prosecutor David Pascoe unveiled evidence he plans to present at Harrison’s upcoming October trial.
The Columbia Republican “got paid over $80,000 a year to lie!” Pascoe told state Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen.
From 1999 to 2010, Harrison — former chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee — secretly was paid more than $80,000 a year by the Richard Quinn & Associates consulting firm to help Quinn’s business clients get legislation passed through the S.C. House, Pascoe told Mullen.
“I can’t wait to try this case and show you that!” Pascoe told Mullen, adding Harrison wrongly has claimed his work for the Quinn firm only was on political campaigns. At trial, Quinn employees will testify Harrison did no work on political campaigns, Pascoe told the judge.
“That is what makes this case so bad ... and why Mr. Harrison was so corrupt,” said Pascoe. “He got paid $80,000 a year (by Quinn) to be chairman of the Judiciary.”
Quinn clients that Harrison helped while leading the Judiciary Committee included Palmetto Richland hospital, and the SCANA and AT&T utilities, Pascoe said. Harrison never reported the payments on required disclosure forms, Pascoe added.
He also lied about his involvement with Quinn, Pascoe said.
When asked by a journalist if he was paid by Quinn in 2006, Harrison responded, “I am not a salaried employee of Richard Quinn & Associates,” the prosecutor said.
Pascoe, who spoke during an 80-minute hearing at the Richland Courthouse, was answering arguments made by Harrison’s attorney Reggie Lloyd.
Lloyd told Mullen that the laws that Pascoe accuses Harrison of violating don’t apply to the former legislator’s situation, asking her to dismiss the charges against Harrison.
For instance, Lloyd said Harrison was under no obligation to disclose his work for Quinn or the money the Quinn firm paid him.
Mullen did not rule Wednesday on Lloyd’s motion to dismiss the charges against Harrison. But, at the hearing’s close, the judge told Lloyd that she still planned on starting Harrison’s trial on Oct. 22.
However, the judge ordered Pascoe to submit examples of specific facts and laws that he plans to present at trial so she can further consider Lloyd’s arguments.
The state grand jury indicted Harrison last fall on two counts of misconduct in office and criminal conspiracy.
In trying to convince a judge to dismiss the charges, Harrison faces an uphill battle.
In three previous public corruption cases, lawyers for defendants tried and failed to get judges to toss out or weaken Pascoe’s cases. In the end, all the defendants entered guilty pleas.
▪ Ex-state Rep. Rick Quinn, R-Lexington, fought allowing Pascoe to use material seized by State Law Enforcement Division agents in a raid on his downtown Columbia office. Eventually, Quinn, the son of Richard Quinn, resigned from the House and pleaded guilty to official misconduct.
▪ Quinn’s father, Richard Quinn, who ran Richard Quinn & Associates for decades, filed motions to stop Pascoe from using material seized in a SLED raid. The motions were denied. As part of his son’s guilty plea, charges against the the senior Quinn were dropped and his firm entered a guilty plea to failing to register as a lobbyist, paying a $3,000 fine.
▪ Former Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, argued Pascoe didn’t have the right to charge him because he was not an original target of the public corruption investigation. Earlier this year, Courson entered a guilty plea to a count of official misconduct. He has not yet been sentenced.
Longtime legislative ethics watchdog John Crangle, a lawyer, described Wednesday’s court hearing for Harrison as “bizarre.”
“What they were doing was basically conducting a mini-trial of issues that will be introduced and decided at trial,” said Crangle, predicting, “There’s a 1 percent chance the judge will dismiss.”
This story was originally published August 15, 2018 at 6:57 PM.