Chesterfield County leaders charged in inmate case

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The jail administrator and an assistant county manager in Chesterfield County have been indicted as part of an investigation into how state inmates were used in the county.

Jail director Ritchie Rollings and Harold Hainey, who now runs the county’s Emergency Management department, were charged with misconduct in office.

The indictments released Thursday say both men used a state inmate on loan to the county to work on personal property. Sheriff Sam Parker was indicted in March on six similar charges.

A judge released them on their own recognizance. Prosecutors say they’re cooperating. Neither man wanted to talk about the case and they didn’t have lawyers.

Parker’s lawyer says the sheriff got tripped up in confusing regulations and wasn’t doing anything different than rural sheriffs have been doing for decades.