Suspended Williamsburg County Sheriff Stephen Gardner and a former elected county supervisor appeared in court for the first time on Friday, a day after both were named in a nine-count indictment on public corruption charges.
Judge Heath Taylor set $100,000 personal recognizance bonds for each Gardner and Tiffany Cooks, citing in part that neither have criminal records. Their attorneys also said that both have cooperated with the investigation.
Lead state prosecutor Creighton Waters asked that standard bond conditions be set, including that Gardner and Cooks not have contact with employees of the sheriffs department and county employees.
Gov. Henry McMaster suspended Gardner from office Thursday after the indictment's release. He named Clemson Wright, a special agent with the S.C. Law Enforcement Division since 2018, as interim.
Cooks, who had since been serving as the administrator for the Town of Estill, resigned in wake of the indictments, Waters said.
Gardner has served as Williamsburg County sheriff since 2017, and Cooks was the former Williamsburg County supervisor from 2019 through the end of 2022.
The nine-count indictment charges both with criminal conspiracy, misconduct in office and money laundering. Here's a breakdown of the indictments.
Gardner
- Count 1: Criminal conspiracy, zero to five years and/or fine up to $5,000
- Count 2: Misconduct in office, common Law, zero to 10 years
- Count 4: Receiving anything of value to influence action of public official Ethics Act violation, zero to 10 years and/or up to $10,000 fine
- Count 7: Acceptance of rebates or extra compensation, three months to five years and a fine of $100 to $500
- Count 8: Money laundering, value $20,000 but less than $100,000, zero to 10 years
Cooks
- Count 1: Criminal conspiracy, zero to five years and/or fine of up to $5,000
- Count 3: Misconduct in office, common law, zero to 10 years
- Count 5: Offering anything of value to influence action of public official Ethics Act violation, zero to 10 years and/or a fine of up to $10,000
- Count 6: Embezzlement, zero to 10 years and a fine in the court's discretion
- Count 9: Money laundering, value $20,000 but less than $100,000, zero to 10 years
Waters said Gardner, 50, and Cooks, 51, are accused of diverting thousands of American Rescue Act Plan dollars sent to the county to instead pay Gardner, who earned six-figure pay.
Waters said those federal dollars were meant to help communities and governments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scheme, the S.C. Attorney General's Office says, helped the pair "avoid taxes or withholdings on the amounts paid, by routing the government money to Gardner under the guise of checks written to a third party.”
That third party, Waters said, was a friend of Gardner's who did landscaping work for the county.
"Ultimately, your honor, this was a farce," Waters told the court Friday.
