Former county cops on track to go to trial, says attorney general

Attorney General Alan Wilson pledged Friday to move the prosecution of four former Horry County Police officers as quickly as possible, although he could not say when the cases would actually come to trial.

Wilson told WRNN-FM radio hosts Dave Priest and Liz Callaway during an interview that his office is “working very hard to see that it comes to fruition and gets completed very soon.”

“I can tell you right now, I know the people who are handling those cases and they’re some of our best prosecutors, and they’re going to move them as quickly as possible,” Wilson said.

Wilson also said the ongoing civil litigation against one of the former detectives, Allen Large, will not affect the timing of the trial.

However, court records show that pre-trial activities are underway against all of the indicted officers except for Large.

The attorney’s general spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.

Large was indicted Sept. 15 by a grand jury convened by the attorney general on five counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and six counts of misconduct in office.

Large also is the target of five lawsuits accusing him of sexually harassing or assaulting five women identified only as Jane Does. The police department and Horry County settled one of those suits brought by Jane Doe 1 on Jan. 31 for an undisclosed sum of money.

No motions to begin the discovery process to gather evidence and interview witnesses have been filed in the case against Large.

In the indictment of former Detective Darryl Williams, those procedures began just weeks after he appeared before a judge in September and pleaded not guilty to nine counts of misconduct in office.

The indictments against Williams say he failed to properly investigate 88 cases, failed to properly investigate two cases of criminal sexual conduct, two cases of sexual assault and one kidnapping and sexual assault. Williams also is charged with using his county vehicle and county paid time to work another job at the Department of Social Services.

The discovery process for former Sgt. Luke Green began in October and in December for former Detective Todd Cox.

Cox was indicted on 16 counts of misconduct in office. The indictments say Cox knowingly closed cases without proper investigation and knowingly unassigned himself from cases that involved charges of criminal sexual conduct, child abuse, sexual exploitation of a minor, cruelty to children and attempted murder among other cases. One indictment says he failed to investigate 18 cases.

Green was indicted on three counts of misconduct in office. The indictments say Green made inappropriate sexual contact with a suspect during a prostitution arrest and engaged in a sexual relationship with a confidential informant.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Former county cops on track to go to trial, says attorney general."