In 2022, we were contacted by Jenn Ableson of the Washington Post who was interested in doing an investigative piece on two of our closed cases which had been litigated in partnership with our close friend Dan Boles of the Boles Law Firm in James Island. Both cases involved minor high school students who had been abused by a school resource officer, Deputy Jamel Bradley of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, on the campus of Spring Valley High School. Although our clients’ identities were allowed to remain anonymous by the United States District Court, much of the sworn testimony and documentary evidence detailing the warning signs provided to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and to Richland County School District 2 was contained in the Federal Court filings. Although the information was available to the public, little interest had been shown in the case despite the thousands of students who had needlessly been exposed to the predatory conduct of Deputy Bradley at multiple schools in Richland County.
Reporter Jenn Ableson learned about the widespread danger and spent over one year researching Court filings and speaking to witnesses in connection with her co-reporters Jessica Contrera and Nate Jones. The research culminated in detailed exposé that was published the day prior to Deputy Bradley’s sentencing for the crimes of sexual battery with a student and first-degree assault and battery. Although the prosecutor had worked out a plea deal which allowed Bradley’s five-year prison sentence to be suspended to three years’ probation and to allow Bradley to remain free from registering on the sex offender registry, fortunately the South Carolina Circuit Court rejected a portion of plea agreement and ultimately required Deputy Bradley to register as a sex offender.
Over the course of the last 16 years, we have had the unfortunate occasion to represent a series of young men and women who have been sexually abused at school, at overnight summer camps, and by law enforcement officials assigned to investigate their cases. Every single one of these cases had a common thread – the perpetrator selected a victim whom he thought was unlikely to report the abuse to his or her parents or relatives. The statistics in this regard are alarming. Medical journals report that only 9% of school employee sexual misconduct cases are reported. A Lowcountry psychologist who agreed to testify in the two Richland County cases involving Deputy Bradley noted that “an adolescent’s ability to perceive the wrongfulness of educator sexual misconduct is different from that of an adult,” and as a result “disclosures are delayed by years from the time the abuse occurred.” Sexual predators in a school, camp, and extracurricular activity setting rely on the natural reluctance of children and teens to report abuse. The South Carolina Legislature has attempted to combat this tendency of minors to delay reporting abuse by passing a statute that allows anyone who is sexually abused before the age of 21 to bring a civil claim for damages up his or her twenty-seventh birthday. Unfortunately, however, this statute only applies to private schools, camps, and extracurricular settings. Children and teens who are abused in public schools or in camps or extracurricular activities organized though public schools (including summer camps for elementary students which are commonly organized though public colleges and universities) are currently without a remedy. This is a blind spot in the law which our state’s legislature has yet to address.
What we can all do to reverse this trend is talk to our children. Unfortunately, a healthy dose of suspicion is necessary when camp counselors, coaches, youth ministers, ski-trip chaperones, and any young person is afforded an opportunity to be alone with your children.
In the two Richland County cases noted above, it took the courageousness of a fifteen-year-old student to finally bring an end to Bradley’s access to school children. At the outset of this young student’s case, Deputy Bradley was still on campus, still abusing children, and was still widely heralded as a hero despite years of complaints about him. The odds were stacked in favor of the Deputy and against the students of Richland County. The Richland County Sheriff’s Department withheld documents requested by this student’s mother pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request. It took a Court Order from the South Carolina Circuit Court and a sanction of Ten Thousand Dollars to the Department for violating FOIA before the public records detailing the years of prior complaints about this Deputy Bradley were obtained. The documents revealed a shocking pattern of abuse that ultimately led to Deputy Bradley finally being removed from the schools of Richland County and ultimately to being indicted. Much of the conduct for which he was indicted and ultimately convicted, however, happened prior to the abuse of our fifteen-year-old client who ultimately blew the whistle on the Deputy Bradley. Multiple students could have been saved from abuse had the initial reports of Bradley’s misconduct simply been taken seriously by the school and law enforcement personnel to whom they were made. Oddly enough, Bradley was never charged in connection with his conduct with the fifteen-year-old student who blew the whistle despite her being willing to testify against him in criminal court.
We can’t continue to rely on school-aged children to have the courage to come forward despite the statistical realities to report sexual abuse before action is taken to prevent it. It is up to all of us as parents — as citizens — to be on guard on behalf of all the school-aged children and teens in our community.
For a full version of Jenn Ableson’s exposé please visit the Washington Post’s website or click the media banner on the homepage of our website.