Former SC sheriff pleads guilty to domestic violence, but avoids jail
Former Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic violence Wednesday.
Boone avoided jail time after Judge George McFaddin suspended a 30-day sentence with the condition that Boone complete 26 weeks of domestic abuse counseling.
In February, Florence deputies were called to Boone’s home after he was drunk, throwing objects at his wife, and smashing things with a baseball bat, the Associated Press reported.
If Boone doesn’t complete the court ordered counseling, he’ll go to jail for 30 days and be fined $1,000.
With the latest admission, Boone has pleaded guilty to offenses twice this year.
In January, Boone pleaded guilty to corruption. Boone spent more than $17,000 from a federal narcotics fund, the Florence County general fund and his campaign fund. He pleaded to embezzlement — a felony — and misconduct in office. A judge sentenced him to five years probation.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigated the corruption and domestic violence charges. The Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the cases.
Prosecutors dropped an animal abuse charge that alleged Boone swung a bat at a cat during the fight with his wife.
There was “insufficient evidence that he harmed the cat,” the AG’s office said in a release.
Boone became Florence County’s sheriff in 2005 and was suspended from office in 2019 after being indicted on the corruption charges.
Boone is the latest in a series of South Carolina sheriffs to face criminal charges.
- In 2012, former Saluda County Sheriff Jason Booth left office after pleading guilty to charges of misusing inmates at his county jail.
- In 2013, former Abbeville County Sheriff Charles Goodwin stepped down after pleading guilty to misconduct in office for receiving kickbacks. He was put on probation and sentenced to 100 hours of community service.
- In 2014, former Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker was convicted by a jury on charges he gave inmates at his jail access to women, weapons, alcohol and the Internet. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
- Also in 2014, former Williamsburg County Sheriff Michael Johnson was found guilty of using his sheriff’s incident reports in a credit fraud conspiracy. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
In 2015, former Lexington County Sheriff Jimmy Metts pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge of conspiring to keep two undocumented immigrants from being processed at his jail so he could release them back into the community. Metts was sentenced to a year in prison.
In 2019, federal agents charged former Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood with falsifying records, violating a suspects’ civil rights, lying to the FBI, using county and federal money for things like family trips, and other crimes. Those charges are still pending.
In October, former Colleton County Sheriff R.A. Strickland pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman and corruption for using public money to hire people to do personal jobs for him, including building a chick coop.
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 4:27 PM.