Triggered by a document from the US District Court, issued by US Magistrate Judge Paige Jones Gossett, the Lexington County Sheriff's Department has been raided by investigators. And several items have been seized.
According to one report, the collection of would-be evidence is part of the investigation related to suspended Sheriff James Metts.
A court document states that items were taken from a room housing computers. Items have also been taken from the office of Metts' Public Information Officer John Allard.
A warrant lists 2012 campaign notes, personal electronic devices, a laptop, a vanilla folder, computers, briefcases, appointment books, folders and a memo entitled "Video Gaming, Sweepstakes, and Related Enterprises."
Also listed in the warrant are six cassette tapes. Those tapes are said to be in a large yellow envelope. Another cassette was also removed from a recorder that was connected to a phone.
Three incident reports were seized. One incident report is related to a man who had been charged with possessing a gambling device.
After SLED began busting video gaming parlors in 2012, The LCSD, via Allard e-mails, began publicizing the seizing of illegal gaming devices. Allard would send e-mails with reports of seized gaming machines, and photos of the devices collected by the LCSD deputies.
Sheriff James Metts was indicted last week and charged with accepting a bribe, among other things. Three others were indicted at the same time for bribery related offenses, and a video gaming device, charge. The federal indictment came from the US Attorneys office in Columbia. Copy of one of the incident reports seized:
Monday, September 30, 2013
1:45 p.m. (For immediate release)
INVESTIGATORS SEIZE 53 ILLEGAL VIDEO GAMBLING DEVICES
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| Photos of video gaming machines confiscated at the time of the incident report. |
Lexington County Sheriff’s Department investigators in cooperation with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division on Sunday, September 29 seized 53 illegal video gambling devices in a work area and storage room that were partitioned off with plywood walls from the remainder of a commercial building on Morningside Drive near West Columbia. Investigators also arrested a 38-year-old Lexington man on charges that the man unlawfully possessed the video gambling devices that investigators seized.
Lexington County Sheriff James R. Metts said sheriff’s investigators arrested Brinton Lee Motley, 38, of 784 Parkhurst Lane, Lexington, on a charge of unlawfully possessing a gambling device. Motley was being held on Monday, September 30 at the Lexington County Detention Center while awaiting a bond hearing.
Arrest warrants allege that Motley unlawfully possessed 53 video gambling devices as well as pieces, parts and components that are used to repair, replace and operate illegal video gambling devices, Metts said. The illegal video gambling devices that Motley possessed included stand-up Chess Challenge II devices and table-top Double Platinum devices.
A Lexington County magistrate on Sunday found that the 53 devices all were illegal video gambling devices, which are subject to seizure by law enforcement, Metts said. The magistrate issued an order on Monday to destroy the 53 illegal video gambling devices. Under South Carolina law, a magistrate must determine whether each individual gambling device is illegal.
Sheriff’s investigators developed information that illegal video gambling devices were stored at the commercial building at 2548 Morningside Drive, Metts said. At about 6:21 p.m. on Sunday, investigators executed a search warrant at the Morningside Drive building.
After they executed the search warrant, sheriff’s investigators found 53 illegal video gambling devices in a storage room and work area that were separated from the remainder of the Morningside Drive building with plywood walls, Metts said. The storage room and work area were kept locked with a plywood door. The work area contained several illegal video gambling devices and parts from illegal video gambling devices.
A SLED agent assisted sheriff’s investigators in determining whether the video gambling devices found at the Morningside Drive building were illegal, Metts said. SLED also made arrangements to place 48 of the 53 seized illegal video gambling devices at a warehouse that SLED uses to store such devices so that all of the 53 illegal video gambling devices did not need to be stored at the Sheriff’s Department evidence building.
Metts asked anyone with information about illegal video gambling devices to call the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at (803) 785-8230 or CrimeStoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC. Citizens also can report information anonymously by accessing the Crime Tip link on the Sheriff’s Department web site (www.lexingtonsheriff.com).
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"...a vanilla folder..." ?
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