Trooper’s DUI favoritism to Clemson football donor was wrong, report says

A high-ranking former S.C. Highway Patrol trooper, who sprung a top Clemson donor arrested for DUI out of jail, “inappropriately intervened” with the booking process, a S.C. Department of Public Safety internal affairs investigation has found.

The internal affairs report, released Wednesday afternoon pursuant to a public records request by The State newspaper, also said that the subject of the report — Capt. Stacy Craven — quit the Highway Patrol before he could be interviewed by DPS internal affairs.

Once Craven, a 30-year Highway Patrol veteran, left the agency saying he was retiring, internal affairs investigators made no further attempt to interview him. The report did not say why investigators did not attempt to interview him in his retirement to hear what he had to say.

DPS’s report stems from an incident following the 2014 annual Clemson-University of South Carolina football game in Clemson.

At that time, top Clemson football donor Stanley Riggins was driving his car from the game when he got out of the car and was arrested by a patrol trooper, charged with DUI and taken to the Pickens County jail for booking, according to an investigation earlier this year of the incident by the State Law Enforcement Division.

Craven unexpectedly showed up at the jail and managed to escort Riggins outside and drive him to waiting relatives before he could be formally booked in, the SLED investigation showed. No record was made at the jail that Riggins had been there. Normally, when people are arrested for DUI, they are booked into jail and spend time there.

“Capt. Craven should not have facilitated his release,” the internal affairs report said.

The incident lay dormant for more than four years. But earlier this year, after a confidential complaint was filed with the state Office of Inspector General, the matter was referred to SLED to investigate whether Craven had committed obstruction of justice by interfering with the booking process.

SLED finished its investigation in June and turned its findings over to 11th Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard.

Hubbard, in a written report dated Oct. 7, found that Craven had acted inappropriately but said that facts in the case did not rise to the kind of specific evidence needed to bring an obstruction of justice charge.

However, Hubbard did say that, based on a detailed SLED report, some of Craven’s answers to SLED investigators were “demonstrably false.”

Hubbard’s finding that Craven had made false statements to SLED differed from the opinion of DPS’s internal affairs investigators, who concluded in their report that Craven was not “untruthful” when he answered questions from SLED agents.

Those investigators said they could not determine “with any certainty that Capt. Craven had deliberately been untruthful with agents of SLED” and pointed out that Craven had answered all questions posed by SLED, according to the DPS report.

At the time he left the patrol, Craven was head of some 140 troopers in an Upstate region covering Pickens, Anderson, Oconee, Spartanburg and Greenville counties.

In the SLED report, Riggins is described as a major Clemson donor through its athletic fundraising booster group, IPTAY. IPTAY is similar to the University of South Carolina’s athletic booster group, the Gamecock Club. The IPTAY website lists Stanley Riggins as a co-endower of the quarterback position of the Clemson football team.

DPS internal affairs also said they found no evidence that Craven had profited or benefited in any way by getting Riggins out of jail.

Craven intervened in the booking process after he received a call from his superior officer, who had spoken with another IPTAY donor, the SLED report said.

Craven had told SLED investigators the reason he got Riggins out of jail was because he had gotten a phone call from Riggins’ wife saying he had heart trouble and needed his medications. The report didn’t say why the medications could not have been brought to the jail.

Once Craven arrived at the Pickens County jail, he stopped the trooper from booking Riggins into the jail, telling him, “Not every charge that we make on somebody needs to be handled through booking and through the jail ... Mr. Riggins isn’t going to be booked,” the DPS report said.

In his letter telling the patrol he was stepping down, Craven made no mention of getting Riggins out of jail, the SLED investigation or internal affairs.

Instead, he wrote in part, “After 30 years of service with the SCHP which is in my opinion the premier law enforcement agency in the world it’s time for a new chapter to begin in my life.”

The internal affairs report said that on Oct. 24, Craven agreed to speak with investigators but a few hours later sent a letter dated Oct. 25 saying he was quitting as of close of business on Oct. 25.

The DUI charge against Riggins was dismissed in 2017. A prosecutor in that case said he had gotten a note from Craven saying that the Highway Patrol was going to dismiss the DUI charge against Riggins.

Although Hubbard declined to bring an obstruction of justice charge against Craven, the prosecutor did note that the case could make the public lose faith in law enforcement.

“The public’s trust in law enforcement is undermined when officers fail to faithfully and forthrightly uphold their duties,” the solicitor wrote.