Hit by tax scandal, ex-Columbia councilman can get back his law license

Brian Newman, a former Columbia city councilman who was convicted of failing to pay state income taxes, has been given the green light to get his law license back.

Newman’s license was suspended in 2016 after he was charged with two misdemeanors — failing to file state income tax returns and failing to pay state taxes.

Newman, who was on City Council from 2010 to 2015, pleaded guilty to failing to pay state taxes on $204,000 in income for the years 2012 and 2013. One of his lawyers, Pete Strom, said at his guilty-plea hearing that Newman had no excuses. “He is a lawyer. He is supposed to pay attention to detail.”

Newman paid his back taxes and was sentenced to probation. However, his arrest and conviction showed how some public officials easily can get hired and make money off of publicly funded programs.

The charges against Newman grew out of a S.C. Department of Revenue investigation into Richland County’s penny-on-the-dollar sales tax program. The program, which was approved by voters in 2012, is paying for transportation-related projects. But its administration proved controversial.

Newman, for instance, was paid $100,000 in public money for legal work he was said to have done, researching land titles for the penny-tax program. The money first was paid to a private corporation that manages the penny-tax program and, then, to Newman’s law firm, which had been hired under a no-bid arrangement.

The arrangement was legal, and under S.C. ethics laws, Newman did not have to publicly disclose the payments, ethics watchdog John Crangle said at the time of Newman’s arrest.

After his arrest, Newman resigned his penny sales tax-related work, giving up a contract worth an estimated $398,000 over five years.

Wednesday, the S.C. Supreme Court formally suspended Newman’s law license for six months but made that suspension retroactive to January 2016, when he pleaded guilty. Before getting his law license back, Newman must take various ethics courses and pay some fees, the high court said.

Newman, a former prosecutor in the 5th Circuit solicitor’s office, is from a S.C. family with roots in the law and public life. He is the grandson of the late state Sen. I. DeQuincey Newman, a leader in the state’s 20th century civil rights struggles. His father and sister — Clifton Newman and Jocelyn Newman — are state Circuit Court judges.

This story was originally published November 14, 2018 at 2:15 PM.