VAL GUEST (STATE LEGISLATURE 106TH DISTRICT) CHECKS IN 8/3/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The Let's Caleb here with Nick Summers, bringing you the voices that make you think right now. On COP 94.5.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

All right, it is 7.37. I think we opened up a can of worms here or a can of sex offenders. Um it's unbelievable. Uh State Representative Val Guest is joining us right now. Good morning, sir.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Good morning. How are you doing, Liz?

SPEAKER_02 0:22

He's such a good sport.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

I don't know. I don't know. He really is such a good sport because uh you never know what you're gonna walk into when you walk in here.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

No, no, you don't. It's just another another rainy Monday here in Oregon.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I haven't seen him in at least a couple of years. He's come on with Reese Boyd, and yeah, I haven't seen you in a long time. It has been a while.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

All right. Um, just to talk about this sex offender thing, that you actually said um, you know, you you texted me, and it was about the Georgetown uh Chief Judge, Richard Dana Todd Jr., getting suspended by the Supreme Court for charges that he was um allegedly uh charged, well, he's charged with allegedly uh child neglect, and he was charged with repeatedly getting in bed with a nine-year-old child and sexually touching himself and allegedly and while watching porn or sexually explicit material. Could be social media, who knows these days? Okay, so um Val guessed how is this person also a public defender? Do public offenders get to pick and choose their cases? Is he the only public offender defender out there? How did he end up defending another person charged with putting a child in danger stemming from the Pauli's Island Community Church thing?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Okay, that's a lot, but um I just I'm gonna. So I'll give you a little bit of background. Yes. Uh when I first moved here in '91, I was in the solicitor's office. So I prosecuted cases for five years. So we dealt with the public defender's office every day. At that time, you had the public defender's office only had three or four, maybe five attorneys. If they had a conflict in the office, then other lawyers in Ori County would get appointed. Now it's evolved to where um they have contract positions for public defenders in South Carolina. So I could I could take I could apply for and potentially get a contract to be a public defender, still have criminal cases in my private practice, and still do domestic work or whatever I want to.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

So these law these are attorneys in Georgetown County. Now I don't know. The last I heard, he was the chief public defender in Georgetown.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Chief public defender? He's also the chief judge.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Last I heard it. I might have changed as I haven't been in touch for a while. And then you've got the the the main public defender for over Ori and Georgetown is the gentleman by the name of Ron Hazard. He is over both, because that's the 15th Judicial Circuit. So he's over both of them. And Mr. Todd had Georgetown California. I think there's only I I don't know for sure. I think there were three. I think there were three, and then they have contract positions. Okay. So now you gotta look at the judicial process on the other side of what a city like Georgetown has. They don't have enough business or need for a full-time judge. Okay? Mm-hmm. Similar to Surfside Beach. We don't have we have a part-time and it happens to Judge Arrakis, who is also a magistrate.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Okay. In Mer City.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

So yeah. So um so not too long ago, there they had a longtime judge that retired. And I guess in Georgetown, had been there for many, many years. He retired, and then my understanding is I guess they they opened it up, he applied, and he got that. Now you asked me if there's been if there's a conflict. He would be conflicted from helping or or representing anybody charged in the city of Georgetown. Oh, in the city charged there.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

But if he get if it's a case where the sheriff's department is involved and he has no other knowledge of it through his position as a judge, then he can be appointed as the public defender for that individual.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

And by default it it's he we we don't know if he's the only one right now.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

I thought there were two or three down there.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

I don't know who's but do you get to pick and choose what you do as a public def public defender?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Well, if you're the head of it, you might get to decide which cases you take and which ones other people take uh in your office. It just depends what type of cases. Um normally i it just it just it's a rotation, you know. These the these come to you and you and you have to apply for a public defender. You have to show that you're indigent and qualified to have a public defender appointed to represent you. And you do that by filing paperwork with the clerk of court's office, and they determine, I believe they determine the eligibility of whether you would qualify for a public defender or you have to go get your own lawyer.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Okay. I have to ask you this question. Okay, price prosecutor.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

How is it that his former wife, this Ricky Todd Jr., how is it that his former wife is accusing him of getting in bed with a nine-year-old child, I'm presuming it's their child, and sexually touching himself while watching sexually explicit material while in bed, repeatedly. These are the words. I'm not uh this is alleged. This is all coming out of the warrant that you read, right? Let me ask you this question. How do you end up with neglect of a child?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Again, I'm What kind of charge is that? I don't know enough. I don't know enough about the the background of the investigation. Uh my understanding is Sled is involved, so they went outside.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

But isn't that sexual in nature?

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Uh neglect of a child? Oh no, no, you're right. But what he's doing, actually doing in that warrant, it would be somewhat sexual in nature. I don't know the facts to tell you.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

But wouldn't there be a charge? Wouldn't you if if you saw a person coming up with these charges of a nine-year-old telling his mother or her mother, yes, repeatedly got in bed, was watching porn, and pleasuring himself, isn't that sexual in nature?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

That's look, I don't know the whole investigation. It could be That's not just neglect.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Neglect to me is like not feeding the kid, leaving the house, doing things, you know, not neglect means one thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Sl Sled has done the investigation and they've determined based on what they can prove this is the appropriate charge. It's my mind, you know. I don't know. Yeah, and I don't I don't know if if the if the whole thing stemmed from his ex-wife or how they came about investigating this. Well, um I'm not sure. I understand DSS initiated investigation, and then I think that's when SLED and law enforcement got called in.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay, second question. And this one you're not gonna know the answer to because um we looked up the sex offender, okay. Um it's on the public registry, and this this person, Kimberly, is a man. It says here that if I type in my address within one mile, this person is living or working within one mile of my address. So now I've determined that this person actually lives in Longs if this if this is up to date and he works at the Marriott Resort by the Ocean Club. How is do you know anything about the sex offender like rules that is a person allowed to I I did pull it up just to Okay so that I can because how can a person be allowed to work at a hotel resort, like I think it's a timeshare even? There's two of them working there.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

So so the definition at this time is that a sex offender cannot live within 1,000 feet Is that right? Yeah, feet of either a public playground, a public park, a school, a daycare center, a children's recreational facility. That does not include a private playground or park area. Like in a neighborhood where you have a HOA and they have a a little playground for kids to come to, that would be private. That's not considered public.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

So I guess the Marriott has a private pool and a private playground.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

And here's the question I need to ask you. Can do you, as a sex offender who's on a registry, need to reveal to every employer that you are on the off sex offender registry?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

That's gonna be the employer's obligation.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Well, I'm just asking, as a person, do I have an obligation to reveal the process?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I don't think so. I I I don't know that answer 100%. So it's on the But I think if you're an employer and you have that situation, you can I mean how hard was it for you to look that up?

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Yeah. Free. And if somebody applies, I I Can I can I not hire someone because they're on the sex offender registry because I have a lot of children and families in my community.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

So if I say, I'm sorry, dude, you're on the sex offender registry, they can't sue you for not hiring.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

And how how many times have people said I'm not gonna hire you because you've been charged with uh robbing a bank? Yeah, I mean you don't have to hire someone.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Because you have to be convicted of doing this. And this guy is convicted of female sodomy and also failure to report.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

I saw that, yeah. I mean, yeah, it I I think your employers got an obligation to uh you know check the the their employees out, especially when they're in a situation around as many kids and young people as you would have at a at a at a facility at at the beach.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Liz, look at look at how many are in your zip code. I just did my zip code. It literally looks like hundreds.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

It the pay I was started counting them, but once I got up to like 80, I was like, Well, it says how many are in the search.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

It does. Yeah, scroll up to the top.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

I would have made my life easier a minute ago.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Somebody just uh messaged me that they live in Carolina Forest, right across from Carolina Forest Elementary School, and there are nine sex offenders within one mile of her address. Two of those locations have multiple sex offenders at those addresses. And here's the thing I want to say: click on the person's name link and find out if that's the address of where they work. Because that's they're not just the matching address, look at it, it it it could be the employer address. So you gotta click on, you say, okay, this my address within a mile, there's a sex offender related, because they have to not only put where they live, but also where they work.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

And I didn't know that. So then when you click on the person's name, you can see where they actually live or if that date's where they work.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

And some of these people come from out of state. I mean, you know, their their convictions are not necessarily in South Carolina. And they're not necessarily here in Ory County. Right. Um And what'd you say?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

It's a thousand feet they have to be away from? A thousand feet. I think it needs to be further than that. I think it needs to be like a couple miles from a school or a playground.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

I think that would be leave very little. That little, very little. Like they'd have to live like in a near a warehouse area. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

We got places back well, never mind. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

It's called Australia.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Isn't that where we used to send everybody? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

This is very disturbing. So in my zip code 226.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah. I think we have a sex avenger problem. I live in the boonies, you know, where they call it the country of Conway. Um, yeah. So and and now you've got me curious. You know, I want to go through these pictures, I want to see uh do I recognize anybody? You know.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Because sex offender could mean what exactly, Val. Not necessarily a child.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

It could be a situation depending on the the facts. Like uh uh years ago, uh let's say an 18-year-old boy sleeps with a 17-year-old girl, that's statutory rate, potentially, and that person would go on the central registry. Or the TJ. You know, she could that's the extreme circumstance where you've got two young people who really aren't doing aren't there's no force involved, but because of the age, that's that's considered statutory.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

And I would say that it's very few and far between.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

I think it is too. I think over time we've our uh solicitors have have looked at those very seriously and and figured out ways to uh in that situation to handle that uh without that young person having that there the rest of their life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

The other thing that is really mind-boggling to me is how many aliases these people have, like totally different names from what they are. How does that happen?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

There's a lot of them.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

How do you how do you have totally different names?

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Well, uh legally, probably they don't legally have different names. They just when they go apply for a job and they get some places that they they don't do a background check and you give them a social security number, they don't care as long as they get paid, and then they get do something wrong and now they've been arrested under a different name, and so it goes in the computer as an alias once they figure out that what the real name is.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

So we kind of heard, and I don't know if it's totally true or accurate, but we heard that a former teacher at the Pauli's Island Community Church, and I think she's former now, but she decided to just do this random search and realized that the worker, Warren Perry, was like working in the and she complained about it.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

But does work and volunteer add up to be the same thing? Is that the loophole? Volunteer?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

I I'm gonna be honest, I don't think that's a loophole. I think that that was it was an oversight. Well, not an oversight. No, they said we we know the leadership said they know by the leadership of that church knowing that that that he had this prior record and and putting him around those kids is abominable. I mean, it should never have happened.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

I mean, the fact that they said he will be supervised at all times, that doesn't even help me because I don't whatever is going on in his mind, it's like it's like sticking a goldfish in the in the tank of an electric eel.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Like it's just I I heard the same thing you did. I heard that there was a teacher that was complaining about that, and she went to the the the leader of the church and basically she ended up getting fired, and um that might be a good lawsuit for her to file.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

You know why that might be uh something that that that that would be Yeah. I mean, because you know that that even adds to the the feeling that it's all a cover-up.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's how it feels. So well, a lot going on. Anything you want to add about the state legislature? Um, you're on a break right now.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

We're gonna meet next week.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

And you're working on something you said with Heather. Heather Ammons Cross.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Well, that's I don't know if we're gonna get that now or or what, but with all this stuff going on, I'm sure that'll have be another hot topic. The uh trying to redefine the play playground areas as being whether they're private and and uh the living conditions, where they can live. That should be any playground for sex offenders.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

It should be any playground, not public, not private.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

I mean, that's you know, like I said, we had some complaints from a uh a neighborhood offer off 707 uh that there was a sex offender within a thousand feet of their private playground in their neighborhood. And we had several conversations with uh the solicitor in the sheriff's office, and the the way the law is interpretated and interpreted, that's that's okay. That's okay. So we have looked at following legislation to change that. And we'll look at that uh a little bit more uh when we get back in session.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Yeah, do it for the children.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Now we are we are meeting next week uh on the budget, which uh supposedly something's been passed, but I'm not sure. Um I'm not sure that um I'm not sure what's gonna happen, to be honest, because um that it appears there was some compromise, but they they wanted to form a committee to discuss the earmarks, which we've had for over 20 years until last year when the Senate at the last minute sent us a budget with no earmarks, and we passed that with an understanding that we would they would be back.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

And then we sent our budget over, and now they're sending it back again with no earmarks.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

So the earmarks are like a certain dollar amount that you've got to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Well, I've got a couple, I'll just tell you. I've got two specifically. One is to help repave the bridge that goes over five on five forty-fourth that goes over the waterway. Okay. It needs to be repaved, and that's not in the plan anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

I would agree with that after driving.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

And the other one is a fire department over in my area that would uh help with obviously any fires or anything in our area, but it also reduces your homeowners' insurance if you've got a fire department within so many miles of your home.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

I like your earmarks.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

So that's two that I have.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Those are core functions of government, you know, safety and infrastructure.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

And bringing the money home here is so that's two that I have, and I don't know where that sits.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

So I don't know how I'm gonna vote. If they're gonna tell me, well, we're gonna let this committee decide. Well, what if that committee decides they don't want mine, but they go past somebody else's? So I don't know what we're gonna do. Okay, we are meeting next week.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Keep us updated on that.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

And we got a big election coming up next week.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Yes, absolutely, August 11th. We didn't even get to talk about it, but the debate is tonight um at 7 p.m. on WMBF, right? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

7 p.m.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Are you endorsing anyone?

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Russell. All right, always Russell. Look at Russell.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

It'd be great to have a hometown uh person in.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Just look at the people running, look at their voting record, and it's pretty, in my opinion, it's it's pretty black and white. Who uh who would you vote for? And we just need to get his name out uh around the rest of the state. So call your friends, neighbors, get it to upstate, get it to the little state, get them out. Call the grandpants, wake the kids. That's right. Thanks for having me.