HATE CRIME?
A liberal attorney who fled the scene of a politically motivated accident in Charleston, South Carolina could find herself unable to practice law.
According to documents obtained by this website, the S.C. Supreme Court’s notoriously unpredictable and inconsistent Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) has received a complaint against attorney Lee Anne Walters – and is initiating an investigation.
Walters, 44, was involved in an alleged hit and run incident on June 24 of this year on the Battery in Charleston, S.C. That’s where Confederate flag supporters including S.C. Secessionist Party chairman James Bessenger and his associate Braxton Spivey were in the middle of another one of their “flagging” events – in which Confederate banners are prominently displayed in public (much to the chagrin of local officials).
We’ve written previously on the “flagging” campaign … most recently here.
In addition to its “flagging” efforts, Bessenger’s group has also led efforts to enforce the state’s “Heritage Act.” That law forbids the removal of any Confederate (or civil rights) “monument, marker, memorial, school, or street” without a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the S.C. General Assembly.
The group has scored several several victories at the local level (here and here) in its efforts, too.
Anyway, according to a city of Charleston, S.C. police report Walters ripped a $10 Confederate flag vanity plate off of a truck belonging to Spivey. At that point, Bessenger is alleged to have stood behind Walters vehicle in an effort to prevent her from fleeing the scene.
That’s when she backed into him, according to multiple witnesses.
“She was jeering at us as we were flagging the Battery,” Bessenger told us. “While jeering she nearly crashed her car. We laughed at her, so she got out of her car and ripped a (Confederate) flag off the front of Braxton’s truck. I was trying to get a picture of her plate and car when she backed into me twice and left the scene.”
According to the police report, Bessenger’s “knee popped out of place and then back in as a result of the collision.”
Damn …
Here are the documents related to her case …
[tnc-pdf-viewer-iframe file=”https://www.fitsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/image2017-07-14-122657.pdf” width=”533″ height=”800″ download=”true” print=”true” fullscreen=”true” share=”true” zoom=”true” open=”true” pagenav=”true” logo=”false” find=”true” language=”en-US” page=”” default_zoom=”auto” pagemode=””]Following the incident, police arrested Walters – who was allegedly traveling with two children at the time – and charged her with damage to personal property and leaving the scene of an accident in which there was a personal injury.
According to the Supreme Court ODC letter, a possible finding of misconduct against Walters could result in sanctions ranging from “a confidential letter of caution or admonition, public reprimand, suspension or disbarment.” Of course it could be months before a decision is made.
Bessenger says Walters needs to be held accountable for her actions.
“If this type of behavior had been directed toward any other group of people, say an LGBT rally or Black Lives Matter protest it would have been a hate crime,” he said. “I figure we owe acts like this, the attacks in New Orleans and the death of Anthony Hervey to Nikki Haley and the South Carolina General Assembly. Their cowardice and their decision to feed into anti-Confederate fervor in 2015 validated this type of behavior. The blood is on their hands.”
For those of you new to this website, we were the first media outlet in the state of South Carolina to call for the removal of the flag from the grounds of the State House in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting. Unlike then-S.C. governor Nikki Haley, we didn’t have to wait for our crony capitalist masters to tell us the right thing to do.
Having said that, we believe the manner in which the flag was brought down was profoundly disrespectful to those who supported it (and still support it). We were especially galled by the rank opportunism and hypocrisy of Haley, who for years supported the flag and rebuffed efforts to remove it.
Anyway, we will do our best to keep readers apprised of the states of the charges against Walters – and the ODC investigation into her conduct.
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