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Last week, a South Carolina police chief “voluntarily” resigned from law enforcement following a quarter century of public service — clocking out after less than two years of a purportedly successful stint with the Laurens Police Department (LPD).
When Keith Phillips Grounsell, 48, returned to the Palmetto State following his beachfront honeymoon in Costa Rica on Wednesday (March 6, 2024), he abruptly submitted his resignation to the “surprise” of elected officials overseeing his department.
“It caught me off-guard,” said the city’s highest-ranking official, mayor Nathan Senn. “It would have been nice to sort of plan [Grounsell’s] announcement a little bit further. But the timing just, sort of, was what it was … We wish him nothing but the best.”
Senn, a full-time attorney at the Laurens-based Senn Law Firm, applauded Grounsell for modernizing LPD during his chiefship. He furthermore told FITSNews that Laurens City Council neither faulted nor begrudged the newlywed for his abrupt resignation.
“I think, when you get married and you have some time to do some self-reflection, that’s natural,” continued Senn between meetings on Monday. “I think, you know, he’s looking at the future and his ability to make more [money] in the private sector. I certainly understand that.”
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When asked if Grounsell’s resignation was “forced” — as relayed to this author by several local law enforcement officers — Senn patently denied the suggestion and maintained Grounsell “asked to submit” his resignation before hugging him following the approval.
FITSNews contacted Grounsell, who quickly responded to our request for a statement. The five-time author — with an affinity for combatting human trafficking and the opioid crisis — affirmed with FITSNews that his resignation was in good standing.
“I commend the dedication of the LPD team,” he wrote in an email to this author. “I’m confident that I’m departing the agency and community in excellent condition, fully staffed, with a waiting list of qualified officers, and crime down across the board, along with an array of community outreach programs in place.”
LPD captain Heath Copeland has since been appointed to serve as acting police chief — a “team player” that Senn believes the community “has a lot of faith” in leading the small-town forward.
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THE PENDING FOIA …
Frequent readers of FITSNews are undoubtedly aware of our ongoing “relationship” with law enforcement in Laurens County — specifically with sheriff Don Reynolds of the embattled Laurens County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) … which is located just 300 feet from LPD headquarters.
Despite scandal after scandal after scandal emanating from Reynolds’ department, LPD has assiduously avoided becoming a proverbial casualty in the ongoing saga. Not only that, the agency is said to be the gatekeeper of an LCSO secret that, if true, could wreak of nepotism and/or corruption … somewhere.
In April 2023, LPD officers purportedly responded to a domestic violence (DV) service call in which a local law enforcement officer was supposedly threatening to kill his then-pregnant wife for not answering her phone sometime around the area’s annual Sip & Stroll Wine Tasting.
The alleged culprit was supposedly photographed and booked into the county detention center — where he is said to have remained overnight — but the lack of an arrest record makes this story an enigma to journalists and frustrated law enforcement officers alike.
Why does this matter? Because the would-be aggressor allegedly returned to LCSOs uniform patrol division within three weeks of allegedly assailing his pregnant wife, according to — wait for it — frustrated deputies within LCSOs uniform patrol division.
“He was laughing because he got away with it,” said one of these deputies. “That’s what pissed us off even more. It’s bad enough that he did what he did, but laughing about being arrested and having no repercussions?”
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RELATED | EMBATTLED SHERIFF FACES PRIMARY OPPONENT
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Come January 24, 2024, this author was told by an LPD hotline operator that leadership was “probably not going to give” FITSNews a copy of the April 2023 incident report. That was — until leadership overheard this blatant disregard for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The author has since been referred to an attorney with Pope Flynn, LLC — legal council for the City of Laurens who stated (on February 7) that leadership “determined to make certain public records available … pursuant to FOIA and the city’s policy regarding requests for public records …”
During Monday’s phone call with Senn, FITSNews reminded him of the aforementioned FOIA, to which the mayor said he would “drop a line” to Copeland and “make sure” the city was fulfilling its end of the recognized request.
As for Grounsell?
“In my experience, in dealing with law enforcement, it’s an occupation where emotions run high,” concluded Senn over the phone. “There can be a lot of turnover. There were folks that loved [Grounsell] and folks that didn’t … That’s neither here nor there, at this point. We have a new chief and it seems like everybody is glad Heath’s on the job. ”
Count on FITSNews for continued coverage of Reynolds’ reelection campaign, as well as additional exposés on the inner workings of bureaus across the state. Finally, if you know of similar cases that deserve investigative scrutiny, please reach out to this media outlet.
We’re not only committed to exposing nefarious activity within government — but steadfast in holding our law enforcement as accountable as they hold the public.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDREW FANCHER
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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1 comment
A recent article on WIS-TV featured among others; Sheriff Leon Lott, Sheriff Lee Foster, and Chief Skip Holbrook, as they whined on about how a partial restoration of citizens’ 2nd Amendment rights might cause trouble for their deputies and officers. Lott bleated at least a portion of the oft-repeated and never realized cliche’ that we might become “The wild wild West or Blood will flow in the streets”. Blood has been flowing in the streets in Leon’s area of responsibility for some time, but not because of average citizens exercising their rights to keep and bear arms. As usual, Lee Foster had to be in the limelight saying something, even if it were just something dumb. Then there was Chief Skip Holbrook, parroting for his liberal Democratic masters how this will make life more difficult for his officers.
The Criminal Justice Academy Director weighed in about this “changing the dynamic between the community and Law Enforcement”.
If citizens having their rightful 2nd Amendment rights partially restored sends these and other icons of South Carolina Law Enforcement into such a tizzy, then perhaps they should all do as they should have done decades ago and retire.
I guess Academy Director Swindler is upset that LE is losing its monopoly on the use of force. Does he not understand that far too often, the police only get there in time to only do the chalk outlines (admittedly a cliche’) and if lucky, call an ambulance for the victim? “When seconds count, police are minutes away”, is not just a cliche’, too often it is the absolute truth.
In Leon’s territory recently, a mother of small children successfully defended herself and her children by fatally shooting an intruder in her home with a gun she had in her pocketbook. This scenario could easily have happened away from her home. What if she had been away from her home and had applied for her “mother, may I” permission slip to exercise her Constitutionally enumerated right to carry, but SLED was taking its time in getting the permit to her? I guess Leon would have been fine letting his Crime Scene detail do the proverbial chalk outlines and then doing another media bit about how he wants to “build partnerships with the community” as he calls the attack on her, “senseless”. Her pain or worse would literally have been no skin off of his butt, same as most other crime victims, except maybe at election time if reminded of it at a rally.
The partial restoration of 2A rights that citizens received a few days ago was long overdue. If these whining dinosaurs cannot handle it, they should do their citizens, their employees, and the rest of us a service and retire while they have a semblance of dignity and credibility left.