SCOTT HARPER FROM GABNEWSONLINE.com "What's Happening In Georgetown?" 8/7/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

I'll tell you one thing, Scott Harper signed up to uh hit those 70 plus emails uh to read from the Georgetown Sheriff's Office regarding the Pauli's Island Community Church investigation, and he's joining us now. I don't know if you got through them all, Scott, or what you've uh determined, but um what do what do we know about this?

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Well, I mean, there was no earth-shaking, you know, things in the emails. I guess uh the emails uh for some people created more questions, and the emails answered a few questions, and um, but um, like I said, there was nothing earth-shaking that you know that that we found out. Um, but yeah, there was uh a file, uh a computer file with uh 70 different files inside that. And some of the uh files had multiple emails, so it took it took a little while to go through them. But um yeah, I guess uh one of the things is a lot of people uh have been speculating that um Warren Perry, the uh sex offender, um had a lot of money and was using some of his money for the building program at uh Polypath and Community Church. Now, according to uh one of the emails from one of the investigators, that's not the case. They don't find any connection between his finances and the building program that's taking place at the church. So um, you know, based on that email, that that rumor uh may not be true. Um, but one thing we did find out, uh do you remember when they had the meeting, the first meeting where the preacher was, you know, giving his side of the uh situation, and you know, he just kept reading and reading and reading, and no matter what was going on in the uh congregation, and you had the lady come in uh from the back door, yeah, and she was screaming and crying, saying that her child was molested back in uh I think it was 2022, if I if I'm not mistaken right, uh about the uh year. But anyway, uh there was an email about that from uh investigator uh Marocino from the uh sheriff's department, and uh it says that the uh child of the um mother who was observed yelling during the uh church meeting has been referred to the Children's Recovery Center and has completed a forensic interview. Um now they claim in the email that uh nothing that they have found indicates that the child was touched by war and period. You know. Um so what does that mean? Uh yeah, I mean I was I was the one standing in front of the lady when she came in and was able to get the uh the video from from you know from the front, uh, you know, from her of her face and everything. I just said that they couldn't get any evidential um uh uh evidentiary forensic interview involving the child who's reportedly taken uh to the bathroom by Perry as uh as scheduled. That was gonna uh investigators may contact uh Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

So let me ask you this question.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Anyway, the email kind of claims that they don't have any Well let me ask you this question.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

I have to I have to ask you this question. I believe her. So I mean I was standing right in front of her. Scott, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

I just have to ask you this question. Um did Perry, the convicted sex offender on the sex offender registry, escort a child to the bathroom?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Um, according to this email, let's see, did it take hell was reportedly taken to the bathroom by Perry, and they were gonna interview that on uh July 24th of this year, interview about that. Um so this email was written before uh they did the interview about that, and there was not a follow-up email after.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

But I'm just asking you, did that actually happen? Whether the child was molested or not?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

I mean, that that's the claim. The claim that was yes, he did. Um, and then they were going to investigate about that on July 24th at 8 30 a.m. And after July 24th, there was no follow-up email to indicate you know what they found.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

So I don't understand why would a convicted sex offender, everybody knows it in charge, be allowed to take a child to the bathroom.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

I don't know. I mean, this whole thing, uh you know, that that's a very good question. I mean, but take out take out the molestation.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Take out the molestation, actual physical touch or sodomy, or sexual assault, you know, that alone is a major violation for everybody that knew about it, including Perry himself.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Yeah, everything was a a violation. I mean, uh from the time he set up on the campus with the kids, so that's everything from that point forward was that.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

That child may not have been may or may not have been physically molested. But who knows what happened in there. He could have been told to take to disrobe. He could have been told leave the door open, or this is how you do it, or there could have been a whole host of things that were sexual violations in nature just by conversation and by watching. That was so uh infuriating.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, I mean uh I don't know if the child was molested or not, but I do believe his mother believes it. Because I mean I I I watched her that night at at the meeting and and sh I mean either she's the best actress on the planet or she was telling the truth because so I believe she believes it.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah, but either way, a sex offender took her child to use the bathroom.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Right. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

That's horrible.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

That's the allegation. And then you know, how many how many others did he take besides the one that's became public? Yeah. The kid just didn't mention it.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

You know.

unknown 6:25

Perry.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah. Where is he?

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Yeah, he's in jail. His his bond was denied.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Okay, so he's still in jail.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

When he was arrested the second time, his bond was denied. Remember, he got arrested first, um, you know, about three or four weeks ago, whatever it's been now. And then he got right out on bond, which surprised me because he was arrested for violating his probation.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Did they confiscate all his computers and phones and all that?

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yes, as far as I know, yes. I mean, one of the emails about all the all the stuff that they they took, yeah. Um, computers, phones, things like that. Um, but yes, Vaughn was he got out on bond for violating parole and then he got arrested again like three days later, and then they denied Von. So he's he's in jail. He's the only the only one of the five that are still in jail. Now everybody else got out on bond.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Has this woman come out at all, like publicly, other than that moment that she walked in?

SPEAKER_02 7:21

No, we've tried to find her. I'm sure every reporter in the state has probably tried to find her, and so far I haven't seen any interviews with her or anything.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Has she um been named in filing a lawsuit?

SPEAKER_02 7:35

If she has, she's one of the Jane Does. Okay. There's a lot of there's a lot of John and Jane Does in these lawsuits, you know, to protect the identity of their their kids. So um but I can't say for sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

She may have in your reporting, I see here um there's um this is uh was it Nikki Howard?

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Nikki Howard was the director of the school.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Okay. They she consented to searches of her personal phone, which was used to conduct church business and the work laptop. Mobile devices of Don and Jinny's have also been collected from search warrants. Laptops are were located during the search warrant from the church and um extractions of devices that can yield emails, text messages, and other communications for potential leads or or evidence. So do we have any uh follow-up on those devices? How long does it take to do a forensics on them?

SPEAKER_02 8:37

No, the Sheriff's Department hasn't released a lot of follow-up information. You know, they release the initial information, but then the uh what we call the supplement reports after the after the initial incident report, uh, we don't usually get those. Those are part of the investigation, and they claim that um, you know, they can't release that stuff because, you know, it might damage the case or whatever. But um so no, what they found on the computers, blah, blah, blah. We don't know. Um, they haven't released that. It'll come out in court.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

What is what is your sense of what's happening?

SPEAKER_02 9:11

They've all got a court date. They've all had a court date in September that they have to attend. I don't think much comes out there. It's called a mandatory court date.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Um, I think it's September 24th. I think all of them have that same 1 30 p.m. September 24th uh date that they have to appear in court. Um I don't think a whole lot comes out at that point. I think it's mainly just to make sure they're still here and you know haven't fled the country and all that stuff. Um, and then there's a second one in October, uh second mandatory. Um so as far as going to court for the case itself, I mean those haven't been scheduled yet. Um probably be in 2027, I would imagine. I mean, since they're out on bond, they're they're not gonna uh rush to to get to court, I don't think. You know, that's just my my gut feeling.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

So what news did you get out of what you have read of these 70 plus emails?

SPEAKER_02 10:06

The the emails basically that um I mean I think the biggest thing is is the I mean that I saw, and you know, uh somebody else might see something different, but the uh talking about how much money Perry has put into the church as far as the building program and stuff, uh, that they don't see any connection between his his accounts and and uh the church building program. A lot of people thought that he was that's the reason the uh um uh uh Jenny Williams and Donald Williams got power of attorney. They thought he was paying for the uh church building program, but the at least that email from one of the uh Sheriff's Department investigators said they can't find a connection between that. Um other than that, uh you know, other than that, except for the um what we just told about, the uh the mother who said her child was molested, um, you know, I didn't know about all those interviews that took place, you know, with the child. Um I didn't know that that had happened. And you know but I mean, like I said, I mean yeah, you're talking about and you gotta remember that school is for daycare and kindergartners. That's it. There's no first grade or anything. Um, so I mean a a a child that age to be able to, you know, say exactly what happened, you know, my worry about that is it could have happened to more than once person more than one child.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

And they just don't know how to talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Well, the child recovery center is very skilled at that. But I don't know, like you said, parents may not even know that their chi child needs to be spoken to. Like you said, you know, like they wouldn't express that.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Even if there was no physical touching, I mean, I think parents need to know if their child was taken to the bathroom. You know, one thing one thing about the polytonic community church property is there's a lot of buildings on that site. There's some way in the back that looks like a house, you know, there's there's all kinds of little buildings that, you know, could have been used for anything. You know, it doesn't have to be a bathroom. I mean, you know. I'm not saying it just did happen, but there's a possibility, you know, because there's a lot of hiding places on that campus.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I mean, and like you said, you know, our imaginations uh to uh you know, based on the fact that this is a convicted sex offender on the sexual registry, and I think it was with with a child, right? His charge, the nature of his original accomplishments.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Well, he he has he's never been charged even in 2020 of touching a child. It's his he was arrested for having child porn on his computer. No, as far as him actually physically touching a child, he's never been accused or I'm not saying accused, uh, people have, but um no no no criminal charge has ever been filed against him for actually touching a child. This all started with uh computer porn, child porn, uh, you know, that he had on his computer. That he claims, you know, he he claims he opened an email attachment that he didn't recognize and it popped on his computer.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

You know. And he saved it.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

And he saved it. And of course, you know, we we talked last week about um you know the fact that he was uh given a job at the church of taking pictures of kids while they were on the water slide and in in in bathing suits and things like that. That was one of his assignments um, you know, in the past couple of years. He was assigned that duty. All the all those pictures were still on his phone. All those pictures were still on his phone when he got arrested. So um, you know, he didn't take it, he didn't take them and you know, do what the church needed to do with them and then delete them. He kept them on his phone. So, you know, that that that doesn't look good either. But um, you know, so yeah, this like I was telling Glenn before we started, I mean, this case is gonna be going on for three, four. I mean, we'll we'll be talking about this three years from now once these uh lawsuits go to court. That was you know, this has been the longest stretch since it started. There hadn't been an arrest. We haven't had an arrest all week.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Are you able to FOIA the documents of his original conviction and case and find out if it was a plea bargain or find out it wasn't?

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Oh, it was a plea bargain. No, it was a plea bargain.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Oh, that changes my whole view on the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Because he pled guilty to the cell porn on his computer. And and uh Pastor Pastor Don Williams was a character witness that went and you know made the judge to be lenient. Um you know, he was a character witness.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Uh okay, all right, but like if we go back and I want to know what the v original charge was, and then we find out it's a plea bargain. Like, I don't think you should be allowed to plea bargain sex offenses.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

That should be he never went to jail. He never went to jail after he pled guilty. He got until he got the pro you know, sex offender registry probation and all that stuff. He he didn't go to jail.

unknown 14:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Um for for the original charge from 2020.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

I need to know what that original charge was.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

I mean, I don't know, I don't I don't have it in front of me what the uh what the legal legal term was. I mean, but it was child porn on his computer. Whatever the um legal charge for that is. Um and I I don't know how many um you know he claims that he he just opened an email and it popped on his computer, but I think they saw multiple images.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

And then did he distribute it? Did he forward it to anybody? That's you know, that's a whole nother uh charge.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

So yeah, it's uh We we we need to find out if there what is the original indictment, we need to find out what is the plea agreement, if any, and then we need to see the sentencing sheet. We need all this information from the Georgetown County Sheriff, clerk, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

So have you given me a homework assignment, Mr.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

High? Because this is infuriating to me. The bane of my existence are plea bargains. Because what happens is, and I don't know if you heard the story out of Charlotte, this guy got out of jail, bonded out. He went out and made another murder within like an hour of getting out of jail. This guy in Charlotte, David Simpson.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Well now that's happened that happened in Georgetown a few years ago. A guy was arrested for murdering um a couple of family members. Um he got for some reason got a bond and got out of jail and then went and killed somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Well, that just happened in Charlotte.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

I have no clue how you get a bond for murder. It baffles me.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

These judges, I don't know who's putting these judges in these places. Um I really don't know. It says here, repeated offender David Simpson committed murder just 84 minutes after being released from jail. This isn't Charlotte. How many more innocent people have to die because of soft-down crime prosecutors and judges wanting to give violent repeat offenders fourth and fifth and sixth chances? Um and that's um uh that's Congressman Russell Fry, who's also running for senator, um, talking about how Logan's law, like Logan Frederico, needs to get into place.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

No, they they say prosecutors in that sport. Now I gotta give Jimmy uh uh you know Jimmy Richardson credit. I mean, his office, they fight to get no bond for these people.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Um, and then the judge, you know, kind of just says, Well, we're giving a bond anyway. But so yeah, I don't blame the prosecutors a lot of times when like a murderer gets bonded.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

But in Charlotte, they have that problem.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Here I don't think we've got that problem, at least not the not the cases I've covered. I mean, you know, they've said, Judge, please, no bond, this guy's a danger. And then the judge says, you know, um, you know, $200,000 bond or or whatever, whatever the number is. I mean, we just uh it has to be frustrating.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

We just have to have more information about this individual. Um because what people end up convicted with is not necessarily what they were charged with.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

True. Okay. Well I will I'll be happy to uh to do that.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

I don't know how you do it, but you would know.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

That's my Liz Liz Howling home home homework assignment.

unknown 18:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

No, I'll I'll I think you can get that from a solicitor's office. Yeah, the you know what happened at his at his um at his hearing back in 2023.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah, I want to know that because um you know the charge, the way it's written, um is that it was I just wanna I think you had it in your article. Um the exploitation. Hold on, let me see. He was first degree sexual exploitation of a minor.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Right. I mean that's a that's what I can think of, the uh the illegal charge. Um yeah, and that comes from from computer um child porn on his computer. Um you know, so I don't know. I mean, you know, uh like I said, I mean he's he's never been legally charged with with touching a child, but you know, if it if you if if you get your jollies by having it on your computer, I mean it is something you think about.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Yeah. I mean absolutely okay. Well, Scott Harper of Gab News Online, Georgetown and Beyond. Thank you so much for your coverage on that uh new release of 70 plus emails from the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office. Uh were these only emails between Warren Perry and the Sheriff's Office, or did they have There was only one.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

There was only one, the one I put at the top of the story. That was the only email that Warren Perry wrote to an investigator. It had to do with uh a vehicle that I guess he had been driving, and then he gave it to the church or something. And so he was letting them know, I guess part of his sex offender registry deal. I guess you have to tell them what car you're driving, I guess. Okay, he was letting them know that he was no longer driving that vehicle.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

And who are the other people, the emails between?

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Uh mainly, I mean, the bulk of them was reporters asking questions or you know, submitting FO. But the ones that the ones that we posted in the story are the ones that are not that, not reporters that's asking questions or because we just asked for keywords like Warren Perry, Don Williams, you whatever. We just asked for keywords, and that shows up in a lot of stuff that's not you know really newsworthy. Okay. Um, but yeah, so the ones that we posted are the ones that are not the whatever housekeeping stuff.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah. All right. Scott Harper, thank you for keep your eye out. Thank you so much. Happy weekend.

unknown 20:38

Thank you.