IN SPORTS: Barons, Swampcats battle for SCISA Region II-3A boys hoops title B1 FACT CHECK
A look back at Thursday’s Dem debate A7 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2016
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2 charged with ill treatment of dogs in horrific case FROM STAFF REPORTS Two people have been charged with ill treatment of animals after a malnourished dog was found eating the remains of another dog in the same area. Monica Denise Daniels, 30, and Patrick James Simon, 22, were each charged this week and taken to Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center. Daniels was taken into custody earlier this week and re-
leased, and Simon turned himself in Friday. According to a news release from Sumter Police Department, on Jan. 25, a deputy from Sumter County Sheriff’s Office was servDANIELS ing an eviction notice at a Carolina Avenue residence when he discovered a severely malnourished dog feeding
off the remains of the other dog. Animal Control was called to remove the boxer-pit bull mix and the remains. An animal control representative reported there was SIMON neither water nor shelter for the dogs. Residents at the home denied responsibility for the
dogs. Police detectives were able to determine Daniels and Simon were allegedly responsible for their care. Tonyia McGirt, spokeswoman for the police department, said investigators learned that Daniels had reportedly lived at that residence at one time. “Sugar,” the surviving dog, is about 2 years old and is in good condition. Once her treatments are complete, the news release says she will be
available for adoption. Anyone interested in adopting Sugar may call Animal Control at (803) 773-2833. According to state statutes, a person found guilty of ill treatment of animals, a misdemeanor, must be fined not less than $200 nor more than $500 or imprisoned not more than 30 days or both. Offenses under this section must be tried in the magistrate’s or municipal court.
Museum’s ‘Courage’ exhibit opens Plaintiff in Briggs vs. Elliott featured as opening speaker BY IVY MOORE ivy@theitem.com “Courage” is the name of the exhibit in the Sumter County Museum’s Heritage Education Center, and courage exemplified and its legacy was the strong theme of the show’s Thursday evening opening. Speaker Beatrice Brown Rivers, one of the original plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to desegregation in the U.S., spoke eloquently of the events surrounding Clarendon County’s Briggs v Elliott case — and the people who risked everything to see it through. A full house listened intently, its WANT TO EXPERIENCE rapt attention oc‘COURAGE’? casionally punctuSumter County Museum, ated by gasps, as 122 N. Washington St. Rivers explained (803-775-0908). how the lawsuit www.sumtercountymuseum.org began in the mid1940s when black parents asked the local board of education to furnish a bus for black students, who had to walk to school, often for miles, as white children passed them in buses. Refused a bus and, later, funds for gas for an old bus the parents bought and repaired, the parents, their children and Scott’s Branch High School students, under the leadership of the Rev. J.A. DeLaine and his friend Levi Pearson, sought legal action. Their 1949 lawsuit, Briggs v Elliott, started a long, painful journey to the 1954 Supreme IVY MOORE / THE SUMTER ITEM Court decision in Brown v. (Topeka, Kansas)
Eliza Nelson Reid, who lived in Clarendon County during its black residents’ fight for racial equality, talks about the bravery and suffering of the people in the struggle.
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S.C. Attorney General outlines program to target food stamp fraud BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com While visiting Sumter Thursday, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said food stamp fraud is a growing problem in the state. “This fraud wastes taxpayer’s money and diverts funds from the needy. It is extremely prevalent in South Carolina because we
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have never really attacked it before,” Wilson said. A program using a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant WILSON targeting abuse of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, commonly referred to as the food stamp program, has
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been successful, and he hopes to continue the program, he said. “The grant was about $318,000 in the first year, with one prosecutor and one investigator working,” he said. “We had over $337,000 in restitution ordered by the courts, so once its collected we would pay for our first year of operation.” Wilson said his office partnered with the Depart-
ment of Social Services, which receives the grants. “We use their investigators, not prosecutors,” he said. Assistant Attorney General Nicole Wetherton said food stamp recipients’ efforts to abuse their SNAP cards can be very creative. “They treat it like it’s a debit card, which you’re not supposed to do,” she said. She said sometimes people
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try to sell their benefit cards. “There are cases where people will stand in front of a grocery store and people will be walking in and they will say, ‘There’s $50 on my card, will you give me $50 in cash?’ and people give them cash and they will give them their pin number,” she said.
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2 SECTIONS, 14 PAGES VOL. 121, NO. 101
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