JUSTIVE SERVED WITH JIMMY RICHARDSON (15th Circuit Solicitor) 6/8/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Just third with Jimmy Richardson, the 15th Circuit Court Solicitor on the list Halloway show with Nick Summer on Talk 94.5.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

All right, here it is. And I just said to him, where's your envelope? He's always jotting things down about what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

At least he didn't come in with a cocktail napkin.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Well, your matchbook. Back in the old days. Am I dating myself? I am.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Uh well, no one else is dating us.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

That's true. All right. Jimmy Richardson is here, a 15th circuit solicitor. Justice served. So I'm not going to ask you to endorse anybody unless you have endorsed people publicly, but um, have you made up your mind? Have you voted already?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yes, I have. Okay. I have I have voted, and um, and I'm telling you, um, in a lot of ways, we got some really great candidates out there. And um I think what with some soul searching, you you're gonna see none of them are perfect. Um, everybody brings something different to the table, and um, you know, um you just do what's best for you and your family. I'm not I'm not here to throw out any names of of who should be, or um, there's some some real quality candidates out there. And I think we're in a transition period because you know, Governor McMaster has been there for um ten years. He's the longest serving governor in our state's history because he filled in and got two years of Nikki Haley's and then ran full two full terms. So this doesn't come up every so often. So that governor's race has um generated quite a bit of um a lot of money. I I cannot believe uh how I keep up with the polls, and everyone you look at is different. I don't know how in the world the polls are that off, but I saw one the other day that had three candidates basically tied at the top um and all within nine tenths of a point.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Now how does that happen?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Yeah. Well, I think it's um, you know, I just think maybe it's a faction of people that are unhappy um with the current uh direction of things and um combination of open primaries.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Um people crossing over and trying to impact the vote. Um you have an endorsement, uh big endorsement. So, you know, it's a lot of different reasons, but uh like you said, you have to do your research and feel uh, you know, I have a very strong opinion of the current administration. So um yeah, I'm definitely know where I'm not voting. It's like where am I going to vote? Who will earn that? So um and the AG, how important is that role for the state? What should we be looking for?

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Oh, you know, that is um that is such a great question because I think most of the people listening doesn't um don't know how important that is. The AG um part of their job is to be sort of the prosecutor, the solicitor's backup, or the 17th solicitor. So if we've got a case that there would be an appearance of impropriety, or um you may know the victim or you may know the defendant, um you that's that case is called a recusal, and you send that out and the AG takes that, and the idea is somebody out of Columbia is not going to be as locked into it as somebody around here. So, but that is like I bet Liz, we may send five cases a year to that's where a secretary's house got broken into, a secretary's brother um got a DUI, you know, somebody that people would look at and say, Jimmy can't uh be fair to that, you know. Of course he likes that person or dislikes that person. So we send, but that is so minuscule that where they would actually be the prosecutor. Uh what they really do for us locally is every time we convict somebody um and we convict a bunch of them, these rascals will um run there and as soon as they hit prison, their first day is starting to write appeals. Um so the AG handles all of our appeals and all of our post-conviction relief, not only at the Court of Appeals in the Supreme Court, but if it goes to the US um through the US system through to the US Court of A um Supreme Court, they handle all of our appeals, and that's a big job. And that's just a criminal job. Probably half of the AG's responsibilities deal with suing people that have aggrieved the state. And sometimes that's the federal government, so it gets kind of murky. Um and they have to they've got a big civil side of it also, so they go out and they sue um the US government or they represent the citizens of South Carolina when we're sued um by some other entity. But that's probably the biggest thing that they do, and um like that opioid settlement. Um, I think two years ago that brought in um a ton of money. Now, I'll be honest with you, the opioid settlement was a national park and two or three AGs got together, and you know, I think we joined in with Georgia and some others to um get our share of that. But the money for let's just say fixing your house what paled in comparison with what opioids did. I mean, opioids just ruined family after family after family, and then whatever money came in from Pfizer wasn't nearly enough, but the AG went in and got our fair share of whatever money was available. So all of those things, they got a guy up there named Don Zelenka that second or third in command for Alan Wilson. Don't been there 53 years. Oh, wow. And all across the nation, when you talk about appellate people, Don is the top two or three for the whole United States. Wow. He is that well respected. Uh, and he's getting ready to retire. So regardless of who we get, it uh won't include Don. Uh I tried to talk with him. I said, Don, you know, we got ocean lakes down here. Um, I can get you uh a cabin. You can come to work here at the solicitor's office. There's no reason to let all of this um mind go to waste.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

My goodness.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

But uh I think Don's gonna be into, you know, fishing or something else. Um he didn't he didn't particularly like going back to work.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Uh we're speaking with 15th Circuit solicitor Jimmy Richardson. If you have any questions, you can uh put them up on the budget blinds text line, 843-798-8255. I don't know if you've been following the case of Doc Antill, uh, but the legal case involving um him from the Myrtle Beach Safari, it says uh just came out. And I just wanted to let you know Myrtle Beach Safari is officially over after a new decision from the Supreme Court in Virginia in its ruling uh Thursday last week. The state's highest court threw out every conviction ante challenge and dismissed the indictments tied to them, ending the case without any chance of a new trial. There must be a huge celebration going on uh in his family for sure. Uh, but he was uh charged with the Supreme Court said um that there's a code that bans selling or offering to sell an endangered or threatened species, but it doesn't actually make it a crime to buy one. Um, and that's why this was thrown out. Semantics, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:23

That is great. And look, um, I'm telling you who's the most tickled behind Doc Antler is um that Tiger King ought to be just like licking his chops because he's been in a lot longer.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

But one thing I when when we hit all of these, um this is I know it sounds crazy, but that was probably ten years ago when all of that was going on with Tiger King. Well, no, it was around COVID. Yeah, it was COVID. So we're in twenty it's six years ago.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Um what we found out with that with the um place at uh the Myrtle Beach Safari. Not the Safari, but the um that zoo that was oh the other zoo, yeah, the roadside zoo they called.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Yeah. I can't remember the name of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

One thing, because we were just getting drilled, I guess it all come up because of Doc Antler and um um Tiger King. But the thing that nobody gets is notice all of that's in federal court. The feds don't do arm robberies very often. They don't do murders, they don't do um failure to stop for blue lights or bad checks. What they do do is um zoos. They regulate zoos and they tell you and they regulate money. So the federal government will say, we don't want to get involved in your playground with regard to murder, rape, mayhem, all that. Uh but don't you get involved in ours either.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

So a lot of people were coming, you gotta close down this zoo, you gotta close down this zoo. Look, that's federal. The feds have got to I didn't either. And I've been, you know, with the office since 98, but every day something new comes up and you really have to go to the statute. Now, if I had read the statute, again, this is federal, it didn't Doc Antler didn't have anything to do with us, but when you read it, if it doesn't say possession, um you can't really assume then, just because it's wrong to sell something that it's all wrong to own something.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

To buy it.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

So um that's that makes perfect sense. It may not be what we wanted, but um that's the laws are important you know, the wording is important. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, and that's sometimes what it comes down to.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

And these guys have lawyers that have read it and said, No, you're all right, you can possess it, you just can't. So what I tell my guys, the prosecutors, when they come in there, um, I say first and foremost, go to the statute before you go to any case law or anything else. What does the statute say and what evidence do you have to touch every element of that statute? If you don't have it, you don't have it. Yeah it may seem like, oh, well, that just makes common sense. Common sense left the building when it comes to these statutes because those were drafted by legislators um you know many years ago or last year.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Seems like they may need to reword that one if they wanted to cover buying. Right. Uh, but that's how he ended up getting off on all convictions, also reverse the conspiracy convictions connected to the same conduct. So that's pretty uh pretty crazy. It's all involved some lion cubs. Okay, um, let's point to some of your big um wins that you want to talk about uh some court cases recently.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah, there's been um quite a few. What what happened here and and um it's got the internet ablaze again, but a lot of drug dealers have been getting, you know, 10, 15, 20 years on um selling drugs. Now uh we've talked about it before. Uh people can call it victimless crimes, but um the truth is is there there are people dead all over the streets. It um as long as it's illegal to sell fentanyl, as long as it's illegal to possess, like Tiger King, we're going to prosecute it. And instead of arguing at me, go to your legislature and say, I want to um I want all drugs legalized. And if you can get that, we'll quit doing it. But I'm not, I don't want to write laws. I'm like the federal government here. I don't want to do that. But if you tell me it's wrong, that's what we're gonna prosecute. So, Liz, you see on this Facebook page all of these people. Um a friend of mine um sent me uh this t-shirt that's going around um with the gangs now. I I wish I had it, but it's got an AI generated picture of me screaming the word 10 because all of these guys oh yeah it goes.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Jimmy 10 Richardson. What is that for?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Um these ends end up being 10 years. I told our prosecutors I want at a minimum ten years.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Um, and if that don't break them, then I don't know what will. So it's going from 10 to 20. Um, you know, given 10. One guy the other day said, um, now this wasn't on these local ones, but Jimmy passing out tens and twenties like he's at a strip club.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Oh my gosh. And but here's the thing uh people are saying that you know, sometimes people have a lot of drugs on them, but they don't have intent to sell. Um is it really based on just basic quantity of the drugs, or if you have scales and baggies and cash?

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Scales and baggies and cash really point towards selling it. But what I tell people, and this is easier to think of, if Nick is riding around with five beers in the car, its chance that he could that he could drink that overnight. If he's riding around with two kegs, he's throwing a party. There, there is no way that a person can drink two kegs.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Maybe I'm just really thirsty.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

You're gonna have to stop and make your bladder gladder if you drink uh two kegs. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Yeah. We do have a question if you want to answer, if you can't, because it might be a brand new case. Uh, this whole thing with the cop that pulled the gun over the microwave dish thing, is that something that's landing on your desk or not yet?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

It will be. Um, I got a call from Sled uh about that as soon as they were investigating. Sled's different. Sled will usually call you before they make an arrest. 90% of these cases, we never get a call, well over 90%. But Sled will call and say, let's go through the elements and and figure this out. And y'all, you could tell it was just um somebody got real upset over uh faux pas. Um I honestly done better to collect your gun.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Well, right, you would think being law enforcement. I thought maybe it was just a joke gone bad. Like the one with the fish, and but you're finding out it's not a joke.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah, I've I did too, and I said, is there any and it and it really wasn't a situation where anybody was in danger unless there was a real bad accident, but um he didn't he did point a gun. Uh he's accused of pointing a gun at another officer, and I think he was very frustrated with the sin of the it's just as silly as it sounds. But it what a it made national news. I know, I know, and we can't get out of our own way.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

They called it cops and bobbers.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Uh anything else real quick before we go? No, or we do we wrap it all up here?

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Uh we we've got court this week, so there'll be something in two weeks that we talk about. But all right.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

And you can follow the fifteenth judicial circuit solicitor's office on Facebook and Jimmy does a video Yeah, yeah all the time giving everyone an update.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

So try to wrap up what happened last week and uh week before.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

All right.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

All right, well we'll see you in a couple of weeks. All right, guys. Thank you.