Former Columbia police chief Randy Scott sentenced to prison for drug, gun charge
Former Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott was sentenced in federal court Wednesday afternoon for using drugs and illegally owning guns.
Scott was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison during a hearing at the Matthew Perry Federal Courthouse in Columbia. Judge Terry Wooten handed down the sentence after Scott admitted to using methamphetamine and cocaine throughout late 2017 and 2018 while he also owned firearms.
Under federal law, it is illegal to use narcotics and have guns.
Scott pleaded guilty to the charge in August.
Scott was the chief of the Columbia Police Department from 2011 to 2013. He resigned, saying he struggled with post traumatic stress disorder after a deputy died under his watch while Scott was with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
Scott’s road to sentencing began almost two years ago.
In December 2017, Richland County deputies detained a man who was in a car registered to Scott. The man in the car admitted to using cocaine and methamphetamine with Scott, according to prosecutors, which put Scott on law enforcement’s radar.
In April 2018, Scott was “rushed to the hospital” for a medical condition related to cocaine and meth use, prosecutors said. Opiates also were found in Scott’s system.
Meanwhile, a search for another man on criminal charges led U.S. Marshals and Richland deputies to Scott’s northeast Columbia home in July 2018. When police served a search warrant at the home, someone told them Scott had just used meth, prosecutors said.
Video footage showed Scott taking a gun from his waistband and going into a bedroom. Investigators said they found drugs in Scott’s bedroom and charged him with possession. When police took Scott to jail, he admitted that he used cocaine and meth in the past, prosecutors said.
Between November 2017 and July 2019, Scott owned six handguns, two shotguns and a semi-automatic assault rifle almost identical to an AR-15, a plea agreement shows. At the same time, he was using narcotics regularly.
During the hearing, Scott’s family testified to his character beyond the the criminal charge to try to convince the Judge Wooten to issue a light sentence. Scott told Wooten about his spiral into addiction and the mental health issues that fed his drug use.
“I’m wearing orange and handcuffs because I couldn’t talk about it,” Scott said.
‘Ashamed’
Shackled and in a Lexington County Detention Center jumpsuit, Scott said when he was young, he “had a knack to want to do the best.” He’d given his whole self to helping people, he said.
After serving as a Marine overseas during the 1990s, he came back a changed man, Scott said.
He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder though he didn’t know it at the time, Scott testified.
Scott went on to become a high ranking deputy with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. But after Deputy Keith Cannon, who Scott had hired, died responding to a call, the PTSD was triggered again.
“I carried on,” Scott said.
Cannon’s death and the corresponding mental anguish were the genesis of Scott’s addictions, his attorney, Todd Rutherford, told the court. Outwardly he was thriving as Columbia police chief, but when he was home, he shut himself in and self medicated, first with alcohol then drugs, Rutherford and Scott said.
He sought treatment for his mental health. “But there was a stigma attached. I couldn’t let people see me going to mental health (treatment),” Scott testified. He was diagnosed with depression and other mental illnesses.
He didn’t want his family thinking he was crazy, he said.
“My life turned from living to coping,” Scott said. “I was ashamed to get help because I didn’t want anyone to know.”
Had he known owning guns while using drugs was illegal, he would have given the guns up, Scott said.
For the last four months, Scott has been jailed in the Lexington County Detention Center for violating his bond on the drug and gun charge by using drugs and not showing up to drug treatment or testing, court records show.
Through tears, Scott asked “to be judged for what I did for 49 years,” including his military service and law enforcement career.
“I feel better mentally than I have in years,” he said. “I’m not ashamed of it now. That’s the difference.”
Rutherford asked Wooten to place Scott in an alternative drug treatment program instead of prison.
Wooten denied Scott the alternative sentence but did give him the least prison time established by federal guidelines.
Conduct
The majority of the three-hour hearing was taken up with Wooten trying to determine from prosecutors whether Scott engaged in any other criminal conduct.
The central question was if Scott dealt drugs or used his guns to facilitate any drug deals.
“I’m not going to leave this bench today with any doubt to his (Scott’s) conduct,” Wooten told Assistant U.S. attorney William Witherspoon. “I won’t do that any day.”
In a report presented to the judge, a witness indicated Scott may have dealt methamphetamine.
At one point, Wooten asked Witherspoon: “Is Mr. Scott dealing drugs or not?”
Witherspoon said Scott had the chance to sell drugs but those deals never went through.
“I have no evidence to support the distribution of drugs or I would have charged that,” Witherspoon said.
‘Chief’
Scott’s family asked Wooten to consider his character outside the criminal charge and to consider that his drug problem would be better rehabilitated outside of prison.
Scott’s daughter read a letter written by her sister that said their father taught them to love others as they love themselves and to pick themselves up when they fall. His daugther said Scott was her role model and the reason she was studying criminal justice in school.
The court also heard from Scott’s father, Dewey Scott.
“He’s a hard-loving, working young man,” his father said.
Scott’s ability to take care of his neighbors and community was one reason Scott’s cousin, Bobby Scott, said he shouldn’t be sent to prison.
Bobby Scott said young black children looked up to Scott. Scott played football and basketball with kids who didn’t know their fathers.
“Get him back in the community to help people,” his cousin said. “He’s always Chief where we come from.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 5:43 PM.