Berkeley County, SC Criminal Law Blog

Understandably, drug charges are taken very seriously in South Carolina. With the number of media outlets in today's society, news travels fast. This can damage a person's reputation when they are facing drug charges as the story spreads, before the person even has a chance to defend themselves.

A recent story involving a local teacher has made headlines across the state and stirred up parents of students. The 49-year-old fourth grade teacher was arrested for trafficking meth, purportedly distributing near a school and several other drug related charges. A school representative stated the teacher has been placed on leave with pay.

When police pull people over during routine traffic stops, it can sometimes lead to something more serious if the police discover anything illegal in the vehicle. This is what apparently happened recently when the police pulled over a couple in South Carolina and hit them with drug charges. A police officer decided to pull over the car at approximately 2 a.m. in mid-April because the license plate on the vehicle was expired.

The driver of the Saturn was a 27-year-old woman, while her passenger in the maroon-colored car was a 43-year-old man. The police officer noticed that the driver was shaking when she gave the police officer her driver's license. When the police officer asked about the needles he saw in her vehicle, the woman told him she had diabetes, but she did not have a prescription for diabetes medicine.

Acts of violence between romantic partners are never acceptable. However, as a society, we make a range of assumptions about the perpetrators of domestic violence, in South Carolina and elsewhere. Chief among these is the belief that the abuser is always a man, and the victim a woman. Nevertheless, police in Greenwood recently announced the arrest of a woman for domestic violence under unusual circumstances.

Authorities claim the woman committed multiple acts of domestic violence against her boyfriend. She is now facing charges of aggravated criminal domestic violence. Though terms of her bail were not disclosed, it is reported that police released the woman after the criminal charges were filed.

In the current social and political climate, school violence is of top concern across America. Recent school violence has left school administrators and law enforcement with little choice but to aggressively respond to any level of violence against students or teachers. As a result, the news in South Carolina and across the nation features stories of young people who make questionable choices and are subsequently punished more severely than they may have been in years past. In some cases, students can face serious criminal charges in connection to pranks.

Such may be the case for three South Carolina students who were arrested following an alleged bomb threat to a Newberry County high school. The school was evacuated after officials say a bomb threat was called in on a recent Monday morning. Local police sent officers and bomb-sniffing canines to search the school. Once the property was cleared and it was determined that there were no explosive devices present, student were allowed back in and classes resumed.