Richard Quinn was indicted for perjury 15 months ago. Why are charges stalled in SC court?

No action has been taken for 15 months on a pending state grand jury indictment against Richard Quinn, the alleged mastermind of a web of underground influence peddling that thrived for years in the the S.C. General Assembly.

The 38-page indictment, issued by a state grand jury in May 2021, charges Quinn with 12 counts of perjury and two counts of obstruction of justice.

The charges contain alleged details of how Quinn, 77, for years kept secret payments by his lobbying corporation, Richard Quinn & Associates, to top lawmakers in the S.C. House and Senate to influence legislation. Quinn then lied about those associations to a special state grand jury under the direction of former special prosecutor David Pascoe, the indictment alleged.

The indictment also alleged that Quinn lied to the state grand jury in sworn testimony when he told them he wasn’t being paid by state Attorney General Alan Wilson when Quinn wrote press statements and other documents for the attorney general while on retainer for Wilson.

Rauch Wise, a lawyer for Quinn, told The State newspaper last week that he has been trying to get a motion to dismiss the charges against his client heard before South Carolina Judge Carmen Mullen, the trial judge in the case.

But he’s been unable to. Attorneys Cindy Crick and Shaun Kent also represent Quinn.

“We ’re awaiting a hearing on our motion to dismiss the case,” Wise said. “A hearing has been tentatively scheduled, but it keeps getting bumped back.”

Wise’s motion, filed last October, contends that in 2017 when Quinn pleaded guilty before Mullen to the misdemeanor charge of failing to register as a lobbyist, he agreed to a plea agreement. That plea agreement prevented any evidence gathered in that investigation from being used “in any way” against Quinn.

Evidence in the 2021 indictment against Quinn grew out of the earlier investigation and therefore cannot be used as a basis for the new indictment, the motion says.

“The plea agreement was designed to avoid this very scenario (perjury charges), and the state’s promises must be fulfilled,” the motion says.

However, in 2017 and in 2018, Pascoe said in open court that if Quinn testified about what he knew before a state grand jury and lied, Quinn would be prosecuted for perjury. Pascoe has since been replaced as prosecutor by 7th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Barry Barnette, who brought the new indictment against Quinn in May 2021 based on what Quinn told the state grand jury in 2018.

Mullen, of Beaufort County, was the original judge appointed to hear General Assembly public corruption cases in a wide-ranging State Law Enforcement Division investigation from 2016 to about 2020 involving Pascoe and a state grand jury.

Mullen has recently been mentioned in news reports about disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh, who is facing murder and fraud charges.

She was the judge in the now-acknowledged distribution of $4.3 million in Murdaugh’s liability insurance payout, most of which wound up in Murdaugh’s accounts instead of going to the estate of his longtime late housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. Satterfield died after being injured in a 2019 fall at Murdaugh’s house.

Mullen did not respond to a request made Sept. 8 by The State newspaper, but, on Monday, Sept. 12, an administrative assistant to the judge emailed the newspaper and said it would be scheduled soon.

The motion “has previously been scheduled twice, but was continued due to the scheduling of other matters. We expect it will be set shortly in the near future,” the assistant said.

Quinn’s political empire

Pascoe and SLED’s investigation became one of the most successful public corruption probes in recent state history.

It exposed a hidden political empire dubbed the “Quinndom” that was nourished by Quinn’s hidden money streams.

It also led to the convictions and guilty pleas of three now former lawmakers: Rep. Rick Quinn, R-Lexington, the elder Quinn’s son; Sen. John Courson, R-Richland; and Rep. Jim Merrill, R-Berkeley.

A fourth former lawmaker, Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Richland, had left office before Pascoe’s investigation began.

But an examination of Quinn’s records subpoenaed by the state grand jury showed Harrison had taken nearly $900,000 in secret payments from Quinn over 13 years in exchange for supporting legislation benefiting some Quinn clients.

Harrison contended he was innocent of wrongdoing, but in 2018 a Richland County jury convicted him of perjury and misconduct. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison but paroled after five months.

Before beginning to use a state grand jury in 2016, Pascoe had been appointed special prosecutor by Attorney General Wilson in a 2014 investigation involving misconduct charges against then-House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston.

The investigation was successful. Harrell pleaded guilty in October 2014 and resigned from office.

Quinn’s influence with state lawmakers and federal officials was legendary.

Leading institutions, including the University of South Carolina, the former SCANA electric utility, AT&T, the S.C. Association for Justice and the former Palmetto Health, now part of the Prisma Health, once paid Quinn and his firm hundreds of thousands of dollars to help represent their interests.

Over the years, Quinn had been a paid consultant to top Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Gov. Henry McMaster, Wilson, Courson and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Springdale.

Special prosecutor Barnette could not be reached by press deadline.