From Hells Angels to SCANA, SC prosecutor starts new chapter after long legal career

South Carolina federal prosecutor Jim May, who over his career helped win hundreds of guilty pleas against high-profile criminals at the former utility SCANA, inside the Irish Travelers community and the Hells Angels biker gang, is stepping down and going into private practice with a statewide firm.

“I’m going to miss saying to a jury at the beginning of a case, ‘I’m Jim May, and I represent the United States of America,” May, 41, told The State. “It’s really the honor of my life.”

In May’s nine years as assistant U.S. Attorney, he rose to the top ranks of South Carolina’s federal prosecutors — about 62 handle criminal and civil actions in four offices across the state — and led prosecutions of some of the state’s major complex federal crimes, from human trafficking to white collar fraud.

Hundreds of people May helped negotiate guilty plea deals for wound up going to prison, such as former longtime Lexington County Sheriff Jimmy Metts and more than 50 Irish Travelers and their associates. Metts pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants in return for having bribery and other charges dropped in an alleged scheme where detained immigrants at his jail went free. The Irish Travelers pleaded guilty to a wide variety of financial fraud involving cars, life insurance and false claims to be eligible for social welfare programs.

Two prosecutions May led had national significance and involved billion-dollar crimes.

One case involved the downfall of SCANA, the former Fortune 500 energy company that was once one of South Carolina’s corporate jewels. For four years, May led a four-person prosecutor team with FBI agents. The case is still ongoing but has so far resulted in the guilty pleas of two former top executives, Kevin Marsh and Stephen Byrne.

In another case, dubbed “Operation Brace Yourself,” May coordinated a national team of prosecutors from 20 other U.S. attorney offices across the country, along with a Department of Justice Health Care Task Force, to dismantle a major international Medicare health care fraud and kickback scheme. It was one of the FBI’s largest health fraud investigations.

That case, which started in South Carolina, resulted in 150 convictions and a billions of dollars in restitution to the government, according to the FBI. May won a rare FBI director’s award for excellence for his role in the case. That investigation is still ongoing.

Holding people accountable is what his job was all about, said May, of Columbia.

”Win or lose, all the United States wants is to present a case to a jury that accurately presents the facts to a jury. If the jury comes back against you, it comes back against you. But at least the case was heard.”

From football to crime

In his years as a prosecutor, May was known for his hard-charging ways and blunt talk — traits honed by his four years on the first string of the Vanderbilt University football team on a full athletic scholarship, colleagues said.

“Jim’s formative experience was as an offensive guard. Offensive linemen are some of the most intelligent players on the field because they have to be able to recognize defensive schemes, react to blitzes and make adjustments on the fly,” said Winston Holliday, a fellow federal prosecutor who worked with May — who is 6-foot 3 and weighed over over 300 pounds in his football days — on SCANA and other cases.

“As soon as the ball is snapped, it’s just a fight, so you have to be tough as well, cerebral on the front end but not afraid to mix it up in the trenches,” Holliday added. “That was Jim’s style as a prosecutor.”

May graduated from the University of South Carolina Law School in 2007 and went to the Richland County Public Defender’s Office. There, he, spent five years representing at taxpayers’ expense a parade of obscure accused murderers, thieves, drug pushers and dog fighters too poor to hire a private attorney.

Both as a public defender, and at Vanderbilt, May operated as an underdog who was used to fighting against the odds, Holliday said, noting that Vanderbilt is among the SEC’s worst teams and public defense offices have fewer resources than prosecutors’.

“He has maintained that scrappy mentality,” Holliday said.

That aggressive mindset earned May criticism from some defense lawyers, who said he was not always easy to deal with.

But other defense lawyers, including as Jim Griffin of Columbia, who represented major defendants in the SCANA and “Brace Yourself” cases, said May played fair and was a formidable adversary.

“He handled both cases very strategically, navigated through significant legal and factual issues to achieve a result bigger than the one individual he was prosecuting,” Griffin said.

In “Operation Brace Yourself,” Griffin said, “May focused on the big picture, an approach that led to the dismantling — not just the disruption — of a major international health care fraud involving international call centers and doctor’s groups — he was able to do that not by being a bull in a china shop. He identified people whose cooperation could lead to the successful prosecution of the entire matter.”

May also conceded prosecutors can’t do much without others, who included, for example in the SCANA investigation, fellow prosecutors Holliday, Brook Andrews and Emily Limehouse, as well as FBI agent Luke Davis and other agents.

May acknowledged he can be “hyper-aggressive,” but said his experience in the U.S. Attorney’s Office taught him that “there’s a time to be conciliatory, and there’s a time to be aggressive. There are some attorneys who believe that they are hammers and every problem is a nail. I’ve learned that is the wrong answer.”

May joins Wyche Law firm

At a farewell gathering at the River Rat brewery outside Columbia last week, more than 60 current and former federal prosecutors and FBI agents turned up to wish May well.

They included two federal judges: U.S. Judge Sherri Lydon, who ran the U.S. Attorney’s Office before becoming judge, and U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Richardson, a former prosecutor who worked with May on the Hells Angels and other cases.

Amid beers, participants gave speeches, roasting May and praising him for being “a consummate team player,” always available for advice and help. FBI agents said he was their “go-to” prosecutor and gave him a plaque that included a Latin inscription translated loosely as “don’t mess up” — a sanitized version of one of May’s favorite expressions.

They joked about May going to the “dark side” and defending accused criminals.

As for the “dark side,” May told the group to applause he will never defend pedophiles, “Absolutely not,” he said.

“Seeking justice, trying to get it right in every circumstance, has made me not only a better attorney, it’s made me a better father, a better husband, and a better friend,” said May, who has two school-age children and whose wife of 14 years, Jenny, stood near.

For 10 years, referring to his audience, May paraphrased Shakespeare: “We few, we merry few, have been fighting the good fight. Know that if I can ever help you, I will.”

On Monday, May will start work at the Wyche Law Firm, which has offices in Columbia, Greenville and Spartanburg.

The firm does plaintiff and defense work and takes on high-profile pro bono cases. They currently include a challenge to the state’s Heritage Act, which gives, the firm’s lawsuit alleges, overly broad protection to Confederate and other historical monuments. The firm is known to take all kinds of cases but won’t sue media companies.

The firm’s 36 attorneys have degrees from elite law schools and clerked with notable judges on top appellate courts — far different pedigrees from May’s state law school and public defender credentials.

Matthew Richardson, a Wyche member, said May will add considerably to the firm’s mix.

“His experience and deep, high-profile knowledge of sophisticated investigations and prosecutions fit right in to the high-stakes litigation we are known for,” Richardson said.

May said he’s approaching his transition to private practice with an attitude that he learned at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“I have no fear of failure,” he said. “But I have a fear of messing up.”

This story was originally published August 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.