Garden mulch, fake eyelashes and cufflinks among alleged booty in Lowcountry embezzlement cases (2024)

HAMPTON— In the years after a Hampton County official admitted they lost track of millions in taxpayer funds, a group of local citizens has pushed for answers and demanded accountability for the missing monies.

Last week, a seeming dam break in the fight came when former County Administrator Rose Dobson-Elliott and ex-sheriff's Deputy Justin Edwards were indicted on embezzlement charges. But an Aug. 22 bond hearing for the pair revealed that the allegations involve just a small sliver of the $5.1 million in unaccounted-for cash.And it's not even clear the money came from those funds.

Dobson-Elliott is accused of embezzling $288.44 by buying two different plants, Scott's Turf Builder and 20 bags of mulch from Lowe's in March 2023. A post she made to Facebook the following day appears to show a rose garden being installed at her home, according to a State Law Enforcement Division spokesperson.

Edwards' alleged tally is higher. He is accused of making $13,197 in improper purchases using county funds from 2018 to 2022. His supposed spoils include a firearm, an enclosed utility trailer, floor mats, music equipment, hair supplies, eyelash extensions, pop-up tents, cufflinks and trail cameras. A small portion of those purchases were not located within the Sheriff's office inventory or Edwards' property, SLED agent Matt Wrightsaid during the bond hearing.

Dobson-Elliott is charged with embezzling less than $10,000 in public funds. Edwards was charged with misconduct in office and embezzling more than $10,000 in taxpayer dollars. The charges stem from separate SLED investigations that began in 2023.

The pair appeared before Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen in the Hampton County courthouse Aug. 22. Mullen released both on personal recognizance bonds.

Dobson-Elliot served as county administrator from August 2015 to December 2022. She left that job to work as the engineering services division director for neighboring Jasper County, but her employment there ended after the indictment.

"I'm not guilty. I'm absolutely not guilty," she said after the hearing ended.

Edwards worked in the Hampton County Sheriff's Office as an administrative sergeant, where Wright said he had access to credit cards and performed many financial duties for the agency. He left the department in the beginning of 2023 to join the Town of Estill Police Department, where he worked until April of this year. Edwards is now training to be a funeral director, according to his attorney Tabor Vaux.

"There are some things he does not dispute. There's a lot of what was said that he does," Vaux said during the hearing.

Edwards declined to comment about the charges.

Sheriff Anthony Russell initiated both SLED investigations in the months after he took office in January 2023. He said he discovered "missing equipment" that didn't match his department's inventory and invoices, according to a letter he sent to the agency. Soon after, he asked for the state to investigate the county government as well. Both investigations are ongoing and active, a SLED spokesperson said.

Answers about the lingering lost funds may still come. The citizens group, Hampton County Citizens for Active Restoration, had long called for a forensic audit, a financial deep dive aimed at surfacing impropriety that could be used in a criminal proceeding.

Earlier this year, the group got its wish. The state budget for the 2025 fiscal year includes a proviso that requires S.C. Auditor George Kennedy III to contract a firm to perform the report.

Kennedy selected North Dakota-based Eide Bailly LLP to begin the financial autopsy. He said the firm, currently in the discovery and information gathering phase, is working directly with county personnel.

Randy Vaughn, a member of the citizen's group, is anticipating the results.

"I think there is a lot more left that the forensic audit may turn up," he said.