Magistrate Judges Took Bribes, Stole Money and Mishandled Cases. South Carolina Officials Now Want

[TexasTowelie]

Magistrate Judges Took Bribes, Stole Money and Mishandled Cases. South Carolina Officials Now Want Reform.


COLUMBIA, S.C. — When the South Carolina legislature reconvenes next week, lawmakers say a priority will be ramping up their scrutiny of local magistrate judges, many of whom are among the state’s busiest but least qualified jurists.

A 2019 series by The Post and Courier and ProPublica exposed how a flawed system of selection and oversight provided fertile ground for incompetence and corruption on the bench.

Hand-picked by politicians, some magistrates were found to have accepted bribes, stolen money, flubbed trials, trampled over constitutional protections and mishandled even the most basic elements of criminal cases.

And though they handle hundreds of thousands of misdemeanor and civil cases every year, roughly three-quarters of the state’s magistrates have never practiced law in their life, the investigation found.

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/magistrate-judges-took-bribes-stole-money-and-mishandled-cases-south-carolina-officials-now-want-reform