COLUMBIA — A jury convicted former Chester County Sheriff Alex “Big A” Underwood of seven corruption and abuse of power charges on April 23, effectively ending his career in law enforcement and again highlighting South Carolina’s history with crooked sheriffs.
Chester’s first Black sheriff, who was suspended from office in 2019 amid a federal civil rights investigation and then lost re-election last year, now faces up to 36 years in federal prison after convictions for wire fraud, conspiracy, civil rights violations and theft of government property.
Two of Underwood’s ex-deputies, Johnny Neal and Robert Sprouse, were also found guilty after a nine-day trial in Columbia. The trio will be sentenced later, likely in two or three months. They will remain free on bond until they are sentenced.
The verdicts punctuate one of the largest public corruption cases brought against S.C. law enforcement officials in recent memory. Many of the issues first came to light when The Post and Courier featured Underwood in a string of investigative stories in 2019.
Jake Moore, one of Underwood's attorneys, said the former sheriff's legal team will likely appeal the verdicts.
"We had serious questions in regard to the validity of the government's case, but obviously the jury disagreed with me," Moore told reporters.
Underwood and his deputies sat motionless and remained silent as the 23 guilty verdicts were read aloud. One woman near the back of the courtroom sobbed through her facemask, then left the room while a clerk announced Neal's convictions.
Members of the jury — six of them White, six Black — deliberated for nine and a half hours before reaching their verdicts. During the final hearing, they mostly averted their eyes from the defendants, staring ahead toward District Judge Michelle Childs.
Underwood's convictions fall in line with a disturbing trend in South Carolina. Over the past 11 years, 14 South Carolina sheriffs — including Underwood — have been accused of breaking laws they swore to uphold. Underwood was the 13th to be convicted.
Last year, former Colleton County Sheriff Andy Strickland pleaded guilty to charges that he beat his girlfriend, ordered deputies to work on his properties and used county resources to further what prosecutors called an “inappropriate” relationship. And Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone pleaded guilty to embezzlement and misconduct charges that he used federal funds to buy personal items.
Prosecutors Rebecca Schuman and William Miller with the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice traveled down from Washington, D.C., and called two dozen witnesses to convince jurors that Underwood and his top deputies had abused their powerful positions to benefit themselves.
Underwood illegally used public money to cover first-class plane tickets for himself and his wife to Las Vegas, pulled deputies away from their normal duties to build a “party barn” on his property, skimmed money his deputies had earned working after-hours DUI checkpoints, had deputies surveil and arrest political opponents, and then lied to cover up his actions, prosecutors told the jury.
Prosecutors also accused the lawman and his deputies of unlawfully arresting and roughing up a man who merely taunted them from his front yard as they responded to an emergency.
Defense attorneys for Underwood, Neal and Sprouse produced just two witnesses of their own. Instead, they relied on cross-examining the prosecutors’ witnesses in an effort to minimize their clients’ alleged crimes as mere policy infractions and paint Underwood as a charitable public servant who took care of his employees.
Underwood initially faced more than 80 years behind bars on 10 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and other tampering and theft charges.
The jury found him not guilty of tampering, falsifying records and making false statements during a federal investigation.
Neal was convicted of 12 of the 13 charges he faced, while the jury convicted Sprouse of four of the six charges against him. Neal faces 56 years in prison; Sprouse, 30.
Moore, Underwood's attorney, said his team could appeal the federal wire fraud conviction against Underwood. He said the charge makes no sense, as the money involved never left South Carolina or crossed state lines.
Moore said Underwood has spent tens of thousands of dollars on his defense and has nothing left. Still, he said, the government could move to seize his property, including the barn his former deputies helped build.
“He has nothing," Moore said. "He’s left broken financially.”
The Post and Courier first raised questions about Underwood when it reported in 2019 on the case of Kevin Simpson, the 26-year-old Chester resident whom the sheriff confronted while the man live streamed the department’s response to a wreck outside his home.
Prosecutors later alleged that Underwood and his department’s handling of the incident was unlawful. The prosecution played Simpson’s near 28-minute Facebook video for the jury.
The jury also heard testimony that Neal shoved a handcuffed Simpson to the ground and that Sprouse confiscated Simpson’s phone after entering his home with deputies. Deputies did not write a report on the incident for two months, and one was created only after an FBI agent called asking about the incident, witnesses testified.
The defense counsel countered that reports aren’t always required, and that Underwood’s department had cooperated with the federal investigation.
At one point, the prosecution entered into evidence The Post and Courier’s March 2019 investigation, “Above the Law.” The reporting featured Underwood, but also highlighted more than a dozen sheriffs in the past decade who had been accused of breaking laws.
Among the newspaper’s findings: Underwood and Sprouse flew first-class in 2017 to a sheriff’s conference in Reno, Nev. They took their wives, charging $5,627 on the county’s credit card.
The prosecution centered part of its case around several of those same travel records first reviewed by reporters. The jury also heard testimony that Underwood and Sprouse agreed to reimburse the county for the first-class travel, and their wives’ travel, but only the day after The Post and Courier sent questions about it — two years after the trip.
Moore argued that because Underwood was an elected official, a county policy prohibiting employee spouse travel did not apply to him.
The Post and Courier also reported in 2019 that Underwood had enlisted deputies for renovations on a barn on his personal property. Prosecutors later alleged the work on the barn was substantial, with labor worth as much as $10,000.
The jury heard testimony from former deputies that they were ordered away from on-duty shifts to the sheriff’s property.
Travis Jenkins contributed reporting. This story was produced in partnership with The News & Reporter.
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