MEANWHILE RUMORS RUN WILD ABOUT MYSTERIOUS TEXT MESSAGES …
We’re not gonna lie …
The “Republican” primary election for sheriff of Laurens County, S.C. has been a blast to cover … and a boon to our traffic. Of course it probably hasn’t been the best advertisement for this rural Upstate community, whose residents are staring down a pair of decidedly unappetizing options for their top local cop.
First we have Ricky Chastain, who made headlines years ago when he was busted impregnating a co-worker and driving her to Charlotte, N.C. for an abortion (in his patrol car, no less). Chastain relied on county taxpayers to subsidize an extended “recovery period” for his lover.
Despite the dalliance Chastain was reelected, telling citizens he “deeply regretted” his actions but adding that “God has forgiven me.”
“My wife kids and I began the healing process and counseled with a pastor,” Chastain wrote at the time.
Mmmm-hmmm.
Last month, this website broke the story of a sexting scandal involving Chastain and a woman who is not his wife. From October 2015 to April of this year, Chastain and the woman allegedly exchanged more that 6,600 text messages – including hundreds of sexually-explicit photo messages.
Local media have confirmed our reporting, although so far Chastain has managed to avoid having to address the issue publicly.
Chastain’s evasiveness is the subject of a scathing editorial in this week’s editions of The Greenwood Index Journal …
Chastain spent days ignoring phone messages and emails from an Index-Journal reporter. That same reporter was told by a receptionist he wasn’t in his office during two separate visits. After an unsuccessful attempt to get Chastain to comment on Facebook, a reporter had to find him at a public event just to be told he won’t address the texts “at this time.” And one would have to think if he was not in any way involved in the exchange, he would have been quick to convene a press conference and proclaim “I did not have textual relations with that woman.”
“Textual relations” … LOL.
The editorial goes on to say that Chastain’s extensive texting with the woman – an average of three dozen messages daily – is relevant to voters.
“What a public official does in office is the public’s business,” the editorial added, noting that Chastain’s “last flirtatious foray left the county covering the cost of ferrying his mistress to a Charlotte abortion clinic, defending him in court and paying out a settlement.”
We agree …
Of course Chastain isn’t the only candidate in the race with issues in need of explaining.
His opponent, Donald E. Reynolds, is dealing with a scandal involving allegations that he physically abused his ex-wife – and threatened her at gunpoint.
Anyway, while Chastain refuses to address his scandal his supporters have been aggressively defending him on social media. Specifically, they are alleging that the reams of text messages leaked to multiple media outlets were fabricated – part of a conspiracy against Chastain.
In addition to threatening libel lawsuits, they claim there is an ongoing S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigation into how the messages were leaked.
Hmmmm …
In addition to independently confirming the veracity of the messages (taking the wind out of that whole “libel lawsuit” narrative) we reached out to SLED, whose spokesman confirmed to us that there is currently no investigation into these messages, nor has there even been a request to initiate an investigation.