State Grand Jury Indicts Two Corrections Officers for Alleged Involvement in Smuggling Contraband within South Carolina Prisons

(COLUMBIA, SC) - July 18, 2019 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced today that the South Carolina State Grand Jury has issued an additional indictment in the case known as “Cash Cow”, involving allegations of sophisticated and highly lucrative conspiracies to smuggle large amounts of contraband into the South Carolina prisons.

The indictment alleges that Carmen Amelia Carpenter, a former SCDC Lieutenant at the Turbeville Correctional Institution, and Chesley Lavon McFadden, a former SCDC Sergeant at the Turbeville Correctional Institution, used their “position[s] as correctional officer[s] to facilitate the unlawful introduction and distribution of contraband into a prison facility”. Both Carpenter and McFadden were charged with one count of Criminal Conspiracy, which is punishable by 5 years and up to a $5000 fine, and Common Law Misconduct in Office, which is punishable by up to 10 years and a fine in the discretion of the court.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information regarding contraband in SCDC should contact SLED or the Attorney General’s Office.

The case was investigated by the South Carolina State Grand Jury, which was assisted in this case by a partnership of the Attorney General’s State Grand Jury Division, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the South Carolina Department of Corrections’ Division of Police Services, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, the Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office, the Laurens County Sheriff’s Department, and the Eighth Circuit Solicitor’s Office. The cases will be prosecuted by State Grand Jury Division Chief S. Creighton Waters, Assistant Attorney General David Fernandez, and 5^th Circuit Assistant Solicitor John Conrad.

Attorney General Wilson stressed that all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.