Judge puts ex-Richland County deputy who preyed sexually on students on sex offender list
A state judge on Tuesday put a former Richland County sheriff’s deputy on the state’s sex offender list after the deputy pleaded guilty to charges relating to preying on teen females at Spring Valley High School.
Judge Daniel Coble could have given former deputy Jamel Bradley, 45, a former standout University of South Carolina basketball player, up to 15 years in prison.
At the end of a 30-minute hearing at the Richland County courthouse in downtown Columbia, Coble opted for no prison, giving Bradley a suspended sentence of five years and three years’ probation along with being put on a public sex offenders’ registry.
Coble did not explain his reasoning, but statements during the hearing indicated the ex-deputy will be punished in other ways — having a difficult time getting a job and, except for his own young children, won’t be able to be around children for the rest of his life.
“This is a tragedy of trust that you alone created,” Coble told Bradley, who stood next to his lawyer, Lester “Gill” Bell, to hear the sentence.
Evidence in the case indicated Bradley, an easy-going, popular and athletic school resource officer, had little trouble gaining access to Spring Valley female students and meeting with them privately, whether in his patrol car or in his office at school. In one example, he used his Richland County sheriff’s deputy patrol car to sexually assault a student, according to the prosecution.
The two felony charges to which Bradley pleaded guilty — sexual battery with one student, 16 or 17 years of age, and assault and battery of the first degree against another— involved different students in different years, 2018 and in 2015-2016. In both cases, he had longstanding relationships with the students.
The age of consent in South Carolina is 16, but because Bradley was a school official, his actions against the victim were deemed illegal, regardless of the victim’s consent.
Bradley was a sheriff’s department school resource officer at Spring Valley for 10 years. His actions have been the subject of several lawsuits against the department and local media coverage of his initial arrest in 2019 by the sheriff’s department. Lawsuits have questioned whether Sheriff Leon Lott and his department covered up — through negligence or deliberately — repeated warnings about Bradley’s conduct before his initial arrest.
On Monday, an in-depth story by The Washington Post also raised questions about Bradley, as well as lax oversight of school resource officers in Richland County and around the nation by law enforcement and by schools.
The Post article said, “Richland County officials dismissed or failed to thoroughly investigate complaints of sexual misconduct against Bradley, according to a review of hundreds of documents obtained through public records requests, court filings and interviews with students, parents, educators, law enforcement officials and others.”
Following the hearing, Lott, who is known for being accessible to reporters, issued a public written apology and did not make himself available to reporters. He was not in the courtroom for the hearing.
“I apologize to the victims, their families, and our community, and I will do everything in my power to ensure this never happens again,” Lott said in his statement to the media.
Calling Bradley’s actions “repulsive,” Lott said, “Bradley‘s conduct is not reflective of the honor and professionalism with which Richland County Sheriff’s Department deputies perform their duties. His actions betrayed my trust and the trust of the entire Richland County community.
“I would have liked to see him do some jail time, but I understand that the victims were in agreement with the plea offer,” Lott said. “No amount of jail time would fix what Bradley destroyed.”
Prosecutors in the case originally reached a nonbinding agreement with the defense that Bradley be spared prison and be kept off the sex offender registry in exchange for a guilty plea and an agreement to seek sex offender counseling.
But Coble made it clear that although he would consider that agreement, he retained the right to decide whether to impose a custodial sentence, the sex offender registry, or both.
After Coble pronounced sentence, prosecutor Kathryn Cavanaugh told Coble she was satisfied.
“The overall goal was that Mr. Bradley never be in law enforcement again,” said Cavanaugh, an assistant prosecutor with the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s office. “(And) not be able to work in schools again, and to be held accountable for his actions without putting the victims through a trial. That was the basis for our recommendation.”
In one incident Cavanaugh described, the then-deputy had gone repeatedly to the Spring Valley student’s home in his patrol car car, picked her up, took her to a dead end street where he began to try to make aggressive sexual advances to her. When she told him to stop, he took her home, Cavanaugh said.
One of Bradley’s victims was satisfied with Coble’s decision, according to her attorney, Taylor Bell, who was in the courtroom.
“She took into account he has a young daughter, he has young kids,” Taylor Bell said after the hearing. “She did not want to ruin his (Bradley”s) entire life. She is a forgiving individual... and she wanted this case resolved.”
After the hearing, Bradley’s attorney Gill Bell said he was “disappointed” Coble had placed Bradley on the state sex offender registry because he was already being severely punished by the notoriety of his crime and the fact that people are shunning him.
“That is punishing his children more than anybody. He’s not going to take his kids to ball games any more. He’s not going to be able to go and have fun with them at social events,” Gill Bell said. His young daughter discovered the sex crimes her father was accused of by searching for his name on Google, he said.
The presence of media in the court room and The Washington Post article on Monday may have influenced Coble to put Bradley on the sex offender list, Gill Bell said.
“The Washington Post released a lynch mob piece yesterday and tried to put their finger on the scales of justice, and I think it put him (the judge) in a position where he was worried about the optics of him following the recommendation.”
Gill Bell also said he will be filing a motion for Coble to reconsider designating Bradley as a sex offender. His motion will include a psychiatric evaluation showing experts didn’t believe Bradley was a sex offender risk.
In court, Gill Bell told Coble that Bradley “spent most of his life doing the right thing,” and his Tuesday plea “will define him for the rest of his life.”
Bradley’s wife, Andrea Bradley, who said she’s known Bradley for 22 years, told Coble her husband is “a loyal son and brother, striving to be a loyal husband and an excellent father to two children who absolutely adore him.“
Bradley apologized to Coble for his actions, saying, “I want to express my sincerest apologies to all the families involved.”
Reading a prepared statement, Bradley said, “Over the last several years, I have had to face some extremely difficult lessons, and I’ve been working hard to better myself and make amends. My focus has been centered on being a man of faith and integrity for my family.”
“It was never my intention to do harm, any hurt or harm, but I understand that my mistakes have done this,” Bradley said. “I want to express my sincerest apologies to all the individuals and families involved. I am deeply sorry you had to endure this. And I am also deeply sorry to all those who I disappointed and who I let down.”
As a part of Bradley’s plea deal, he’ll never be permitted to to work in law enforcement or schools again.,
This story was originally published September 3, 2024 at 4:05 PM.
