SLED computer crash not caused by lightning

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A group of defense lawyers wants an independent panel of scientists, defense lawyers and others in the judicial community to investigate a power outage that caused a computer crash at the State Law Enforcement Division.

The servers which contain all the data on drunken driving arrests crashed on July 5. It took more than a month to restore the data.

SLED initially thought the damage was caused by a lightning strike, but Chief Mark Keel told The Post and Courier of Charleston (http://bit.ly/1f7wJrP ) that further investigation showed it was a problem with the agency’s electrical system. He says SLED is spending up to $250,000 to fix it.

The call for an independent investigation came from the South Carolina Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. SLED refused to talk about it Friday.