Accused child porn distributor RJ May wants to change venue of his federal trial
Former state Rep. RJ May wants a change of venue out of Columbia for his upcoming federal trial for allegedly distributing child pornography, saying inflammatory media coverage in his case prevents him from getting a fair and impartial trial.
“The publicity has been sustained, recent and inflammatory with much of it much of it originating via the government,” May wrote in a handwritten two-page motion filed Wednesday. May is being held without bond at the Edgefield County Detention Center.
He said the government improperly made public a document that should have been under seal, feeding the sensationalism around the case months before formal charges were brought against him in June. That document, made public last year, revealed the types of electronic equipment seized in a Homeland Security Investigations search of his home in the summer of 2024.
The former Lexington County Republican state representative said a media outlet was told about the original search of his house and was present during his arrest 10 months later.
“Such timing was only possible by communication between the government and the media,” May wrote.
May, who is representing himself, is facing 10 counts of distributing child pornography online. Each count carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.
May’s trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 9 and last six days at the federal courthouse in Columbia.
On Wednesday, May met with prosecutors and Judge Cameron McGowan Currie to go over discovery material and file motions, including the one on a change of venue.
In his 245-page request for a change of venue, he included dozens of news articles of his case, including pieces from The State, Post and Courier, South Carolina Public Radio, WLTX, WSPA, Fox Carolina, FitsNews, WACH, WIS-TV, the South Carolina Daily Gazette, WYRD-AM radio, USA Today and The Associated Press, among others.
Many of those outlets have reporters who have been covering May’s court proceedings and reporting on his work in the Legislature when he was a high-profile state lawmaker.
Veteran defense attorney Jack Swerling said based on the language in May’s change of venue motion, he is asking for his trial to be moved to another division of federal court within South Carolina.
Other locales where federal trials are held include Florence, Charleston and Greenville, Swerling said.
It would be extremely difficult to get a change of venue to another state, but much easier to move a trial to a federal court within South Carolina, Swerling said. “A defendant would still have to show they could not draw a fair, impartial or unbiased jury in their division to have the case changed to a different division. It is a rarity in any case. “
Much of the publicity about May has been generated by Columbia-based print, television and digital reporters, but accounts of the allegations against May have been circulated statewide.
“It’s really hard to get a change of venue,” said longtime defense attorney Renae Alt-Summers. “You have to show an objective reason to do so.”
Although South Carolina has various federal court sites in different cities, “the majority of our media is statewide, and he is a public figure. The amount of coverage is going to be the same no matter which area of the state he is in,” Alt-Summers said.
Former South Carolina federal prosecutor Derek Shoemake, now a Camden attorney, said change of venue motions are rarely granted in federal court.
In the federal system, jurors are chosen from geographically broad jury pools consisting of voters from many counties — a much more diverse mix than in jury pools for state court, Shoemake said.
“It’s not like state court, where everyone is going to come from his little Lexington County area,” Shoemake said. Many potential jurors will likely not heard of May, he said.
The standard to be eligible for sitting on a federal jury is can the juror be fair and impartial, and many jurors — who will likely be questioned by a judge — will likely meet that standard, Shoemake said.
On Tuesday, federal agents charged another South Carolina public official in a child porn case. Charleston County Magistrate James Gosnell is charged with possessing child sex abuse material. He is being held without bond.
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 4:04 PM.