Suspended SC sheriff pleads guilty to assault of woman and corruption
The suspended Colleton County sheriff pleaded guilty Friday to beating up a woman and misusing county resources on items such as a chicken coop and a shed.
Robert Anderson Strickland Jr. pleaded guilty to third degree assault and battery, breach of trust and misconduct in office before Judge Markley Dennis.
“I may not like the situation I’m in but I put myself here and I understand that,” Strickland told the judge during an online hearing.
Strickland became the sheriff of Colleton County in 2012. In 2019, he was suspended from office after being charged with domestic violence. State police charged him with a dozen corruption offenses in February.
Assistant Attorney General Creighton Waters prosecuted the case. At the hearing, Waters said the state had agreed to consolidate all the charges against Strickland into the three offenses in exchange for his guilty plea.
Dennis sentenced Strickland to five years probation. As part of the plea agreement, Strickland will resign from office and never be a police officer in S.C.
Strickland and his attorney, Andy Savage of Charleston, appeared at Savage’s office during the online hearing. At times Strickland became emotional as Savage recalled events from the past year.
Strickland’s fall from grace began almost a year ago but issues even before then led to his downfall.
Alcohol made Strickland two different people, according to Waters. The investigation into misusing county money and misconduct proved it. Marital problems and a separation from his wife also brought him down, Savage said.
His issues came to a head in November 2019 when he got into an argument over infidelity with a girlfriend, according to police affidavits and Waters. After seeing a text that angered him on her phone, Strickland punched his girlfriend in the face and arm multiple times. She ran from him and hid in a car, which he struck and damaged, before she drove away, Waters said.
Police charged him with second degree domestic violence, and Gov. Henry McMaster suspended him from office soon after.
Sometime after that charge, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began digging into allegations of corruption and misconduct.
Police found that Strickland made Colleton County deputies work on houses and properties that he owned while on county time, Waters said. He also hired a person as a deputy who worked as Strickland’s personal handyman while on the county payroll. Deputies built a shed and chicken coop for him with county resources.
Strickland used his position and authority as leverage to continue a sexual relationship with a young staffer, Waters said.
In the time lead up to the hearing, Strickland joined alcoholic support groups and is getting his life back, his lawyer said. Strickland apologized to the people of Colleton County, his family and especially his children at the hearing.
“I thought my life was over last year but come to find out it was just beginning,” he said.
Before sentencing, Dennis gave an impassioned speech that quoted scripture and scolded Strickland for his crimes and praised his efforts at recovery.
“The people in your community had a right to expect more for you,” Dennis said.
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 2:57 PM.