Protect and Serve

Former Beaufort County Drug Court Judge Manning Smith has gone from the courtroom to the classroom.

A spokesman for Francis Marion University in Florence says Smith, who was removed from the bench in August by S.C. Supreme Court Justice Jean Toal, is now working at the college as a part-time adjunct instructor.

Smith is teaching one section of Political Science 101, an introduction to U.S. government, according to Darryl Bridges, spokesman for Francis Marion University.

Officials at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston declined Tuesday to release information on a 49-year-old Burton man shot last week defending his wife.

Last reported to be in critical but stable condition, the man’s status is still unknown after he was shot Oct. 29 at Laurel Village Mobile Home Park in Burton. His name is being withheld, pending the arrest of his alleged shooter.

The S.C. Supreme Court issued an order last week officially naming Lady’s Island attorney Carol Ruff the new judge of Beaufort County Drug Court.

The order, issued by Supreme Court Associate Justice Costa Pleicones, gives Ruff, 42, the power to “impose sanctions for violations of the conditions of the drug court treatment program,” the order reads.

S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal has replaced former Beaufort County Clerk of Court Elizabeth Smith on a state panel of county clerks and registers of deed.

In an order Toal signed last week, Dorchester County Clerk of Court Cheryl Graham will replace Smith on the Judicial Department’s seven-member Clerks of Court and Registers of Deed Advisory Committee.

A second employee of Beaufort Performing Arts Inc. charged with stealing money from the organization is scheduled to face trial in August, according to Beaufort County court records.

An internal audit of the organization’s finances earlier this year uncovered that Melanie Lashawn Daniels, 36, had been writing checks to herself from the organization’s accounts to the amount of $36,649, according to Capt. Michael Lee, spokesman for the Beaufort Police Department.

A strong advocate of curbing domestic violence, state Rep. Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, is wrestling the prospect of cutting funding to prosecute and defend those accused of domestic violence as state revenues plummet.

A member of the Joint Criminal Domestic Violence Study Committee, Erickson said she is trying to decide if she will vote to cut $2.2 million for the prosecution and public defense of criminal domestic violence cases as proposed in the House’s latest $6.6 billion spending plan.

A 27-year-old Beaufort man was arrested Tuesday at a Lady's Island convenience store for trying to steal two bottles of Bud Light by stuffing them down his pants, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office report.

A clerk at the Circle K on Sea Island Parkway told deputies that she saw Chad Burnette reach into the store's cooler and pull out two bottles of beer. When he emerged from behind a sales display, the bottles were gone,the report said.

The clerk told authorities that she heard a "clanging" noise coming from Burnette's pants and he was seen pulling at his groin area.

A Beaufort man told a Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputy that his fiancee attacked his car with a sword Monday morning after he told her he wanted to move out of their home on Polk Street, according to a Sheriff’s Office incident report.

The 42-year-old man told deputies that he’d been sharing the home with his 28-year-old bride-to-be and her sister for two years, and when he told her he wanted to move out Monday, she became angry, went into their bedroom and picked up a sword, the report said.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case this week that could have implications on the controversy surrounding the non-payment payment of legal fees to court-appointed attorneys in South Carolina and the way states defend indigent clients.

Police were called to a home on Vanita Drive in Burton on Sunday to break up an argument between a married couple, an argument that started when the husband came home with the name of his girlfriend tattooed on his neck.

The man said the couple, who have been married for 11 years, had been separated and were on the outs, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

The woman said the tattoo was disrespectful to her and their marriage and threw the man out of the house after seeing his new tattoo, the report said.

The argument never got physical, according to the report.