SC cop stole $80,000 from drug money. Will he get mercy or prison?

A federal judge will decide Tuesday whether a former veteran South Carolina police chief, who was convicted of stealing $80,000 from his department’s confiscated drug money, should get probation or go to prison.

Federal Judge Bruce Hendricks is scheduled to hear arguments in a Charleston courtroom on whether to grant Shaffer, a 25-year law enforcement veteran, leniency or send him to prison for a prosecutor-recommended year and a day.

Shaffer pleaded guilty last year to theft of government funds and lying to an FBI agent.

“Shaffer knew the rules, and he held others accountable for breaking them. Shaffer has now broken the rules himself,” said a sentencing memo by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brook Andrews, who is arguing for a prison sentence. “The Government asks nothing of Shaffer that he has not asked of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who have worn his handcuffs.”

The government memo continued, stressing that “unlike many of those Shaffer has arrested and charged — and many of the defendants who appear in this Court every day — Shaffer was not born to poverty or a broken home. He did not have a troubled youth. He does not suffer the disease of addiction. Rather, Shaffer stole nearly $80,000 in cash from the Manning Police Department because he simply wanted the money.”

Arguing for mercy is Shaffer’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Cody Groeber, who will ask the judge for two years of probation and a $10,000 fine.

Groeber told the judge in a memo that Shaffer has entirely paid back the $80,000 he stole, adding that Shaffer’s long career in law enforcement, spent entirely in Manning, should count for something.

Groeber, he wrote, started work as a patrol officer, before he worked his way up to shift supervisor and then was promoted to investigations. Shaffer was promoted to police chief in 2009, earning about $50,000.

He was earning $60,000 when he lost his job, Groeber said.

”Police work was not lucrative, but for him, it was a calling to serve,” Groeber said. “It still pains him that he betrayed the principles upon which he built his career. ... The shame he feels is palpable.”

Groeber also told the judge that Shaffer is “a dedicated husband and father,” adding that when Shaffer told his family wha he had done it “was one of the most painful things he has ever had to do.”

“They cannot fathom what he did, nor reconcile it with the man that they know,” Groeber said.

Manning, a town of some 4,000, is the county seat of rural Clarendon County, about 49 miles and an hour’s drive east of Columbia.

The money Shaffer stole was to go to buy equipment for the town’s police department, according to evidence in the case.

In his memo, Andrews cited the “brazenness” of Shaffer’s crime.

Not only did Shaffer lie twice to FBI agent Aaron Hawkins when asked about a tip the FBI had gotten. Shaffer stole the $80,000 a chunk at a time in 72 different transactions in 2015. But Shaffer told the FBI that some of the money came from his brother, but the brother didn’t support Shaffer, the memo said.

“Each time Shaffer drove to the bank, each time he filled out a deposit slip, each time he lied to the FBI, he made choices — and they were all wrong,” Andrews wrote.

Groeber told the judge that since the time of his crime, Shaffer has suffered pains in his left knee and leg, had blood clots in his left leg and lungs, had a knee replacement and still suffers chronic pain.

The former chief’s poor health should be a reason for not sending him to prison, adding that in the confined conditions of prison, he would be of higher risk of catching COVID-19 than on the outside, Groeber wrote.

Andrews said in his memo that federal prisons had appropriate medical care and staff there works to prevent COVID-19.

“When Shaffer’s poor health is regrettable, it is not a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Andrews said.

The cost of sentencing Shaffer to prison is also high, and not a good use of taxpayer dollars, Groeber wrote.

“The cost to incarcerate Mr. Shaffer at the Bureau of Prisons is $37,448 per year, and the cost to place him at a Residential Reentry Center is $34,493 per year,” he said. “This pales in comparison to the cost of supervision by probation at $4,472.”

But Andrews argued there are things more important than money when sentencing a public official who has abused the public trust.

“Any sentence less than incarceration for abuse of power would promote a lack of respect for the law,” he said. “This rings especially true in light of the fact that Shaffer committed these crimes while he himself was tasked with enforcing and promoting respect for the laws he violated.”

South Carolina law officers will be watching to see how he is punished, Andrews wrote.

When police “commit serious crimes,” his memo said, “they must suffer the same fate they’ve demanded of so many others: they must go to prison.”

In a letter pleading to the judge, Shaffer spoke of his remorse, his gratitude in being able to get a job that allowed him to pay the $80,000 back, and the shame he brought to his family.

“I will not do anything again that will bring public embarrassment to them again. I want my family to be proud of me.”

In sentencing convicted criminals, judges use federal guidelines to help them decide. In Shaffer’s case, the fact that he is a first-time felon, has expressed remorse, accepts responsibility and has paid back the money he stole all help in his bid for probation.

This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 11:50 AM.