Now read this:
Here's a little story that might help you decide what to do when the FBI knocks on your door.
On March 20, 2019 trustee-elect Teresa Holmes filed a harassment report against me at the Richland County Sheriff's Department (RCSD). I had sent an email to all board members on that Wednesday morning, telling the board if Holmes and McKie were not going to be sworn in legally by the next Tuesday's board meeting, then I intended to file charges on Friday (two days later). That was at 10:30AM.
By 1:00PM Holmes was at the RCSD, 27 miles from her Blythewood school place of employment, and registering her complaint with Deputy Jenkins.
On the next afternoon, while I was cleaning up dog poop in my backyard, my cell phone rang. I answered, and it was a Deputy Sergeant calling from RCSD to tell me he had a report in front of him that I had been harassing a school board member. Thanks to my law-enforcement experience, I immediately thought of the Miranda Rights ("Anything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law"), and I knew I wasn't going to "give" him anything. He didn't know that, though.
So I said, "That's interesting." After he talked a little longer, I thanked him for calling and said Good-bye. He said he wasn't done yet. I asked, "Is there something else?"
He said he would like to get my side of the story, and I said, "I'm sure you would."
I knew I wasn't going to tell him a thing on the phone. I said I wanted to read the report, and he told me to come on down (to RCSD). When I got there, he greeted me at the door and escorted me upstairs to the office of the Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigations. Now, I was not intimidated at all by that, and I walked right in, shook hands with the DC and sat down. They pushed the report across the table to me.
"Before I read this, I'm going to tell you a little story. When I lived in Denver, the minister of the church I attended was accused by his former step-daughter of molestation. The girl, by then an adult, was mad that the minister and her mother had divorced. (She later retracted her accusation.) A Denver Post reporter saw the minister on a sidewalk one day and asked him about the charge. He said, "Young lady, if I weren't a minister, I'd say it's all bullshit." The reporter printed his exact words in the Denver Post.
Then I read the report about Holmes' complaint. I told the DC and the Sergeant. "This is all bullshit. I wasn't going to "give" you anything, but I am." I pointed to each sentence in the deputy's report. "This is a lie. This is a lie. This is a lie. This is a lie. This is a lie. You haven't got anything."
At one point the sergeant said in a surly voice, "You just want those two women kicked off the board."
I didn't take the bait. I paused and said calmly, "No, I just want them to take the oath of office and become legal members of the board."
The decision at RCSD was that no crime had been committed.
That was March 21, 2019. Holmes and McKie still have not taken the oath of office legally. They are not legitimate members of the board. They cannot serve as officers of the board. And yet???
The morale of the story. When the FBI or SLED or RCSD or the cops show up at your door, if you don't know your rights and what you are doing, keep your mouth shut! "You have the right to remain silent." Exercise that right. Be polite, but exercise your rights!!!
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