SC prosecutor fired for texting a friend while she served on a jury. Here are the details

A Greenville County prosecutor has been fired and his law license suspended for texting with a juror on a case he was not prosecuting.

Prosecutor Jeff Phillips responded to a Facebook post in April from a friend of a friend who had complained about having jury duty.

“We NEED good jurors!” he commented on the post.

The woman then texted him in July to say she was serving on a jury.

“You jinxed me,” she said in a text.

The texts did not involve specifics about the case.

At the time, Phillips was recovering from a stroke.

In a message to The State, Phillips said the court learned of the texts when he asked a colleague who was prosecuting “the case in courtroom 4.”

“I casually said a juror had texted me and I told her I might pop in. An attorney said ‘you might want to tell the judge,’” he said in a Facebook message to a reporter.

He did and gave the judge his phone to look at.

The judge excused the juror and replaced her with an alternate.

The prosecution and defense came to an agreement on a plea before the jury began deliberating.

Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Walt Wilkins fired Phillips Monday.

Phillips worked in the solicitor’s office 30 years ago for three years then went to the state Attorney General’s Office for a year before going into private practice. He returned to the solicitor’s office six months ago.

He said he didn’t think of the solicitor’s office as a law firm. The South Carolina Supreme Court decision suspending his license came down Tuesday.

“I didn’t know it would be improper to have an innocent conversation,” Phillips said. “From what I know now, I shouldn’t have replied to her text. Or I should have simply told her I shouldn’t talk to her.”

He thinks the punishment is too harsh.

Michael O’Brien Nelson, who worked in the coastal 9th Circuit, was suspended from practicing law for six months for not disclosing that his cousin was selected as a juror for a 2007 murder trial and that the two talked and texted while the trial was ongoing.

Phillips declined to say whether he wanted his job back and added he’s not certain what he’ll do now.

His law license is suspended until further notice of the S.C. Supreme Court.