South Carolina Jailer Gets 10 Years for Sexually Assaulting Nine Detainees and Co-Workers
A former jail guard in South Carolina’s Berkeley County was sentenced on March 18, 2025, to 10 years in state prison, after he admitted to sexually assaulting nine detainees and coworkers at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center in 2022. Avery Richard Smith, 24, pleaded guilty to 11 charges: four counts of first-degree assault and battery, five counts of third-degree assault and battery, and two counts of misconduct in office.
As PLN reported, Smith was arrested in June 2024, nine days after an unnamed detainee accused him of making her touch his genitals. An unnamed co-worker then came forward to say that Smith had coerced sex from her on the job. Sheriff Duane Lewis called in the state Law Enforcement Division, whose investigators completed an inquiry and arrested Smith, along with his two direct supervisors, Christoper Dozier III, 43, and Frankie Levar Snider, 45; both were then fired for laughing off Smith’s assaults on two co-workers—the one who came forward and another, also unnamed—three weeks earlier. [See: PLN, Sep. 2024, p.61.] Snider also served as pastor of Increasing Faith Christian Center in North Charleston.
County Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said that she “applaud[ed] Sheriff Lewis, who did not skip a beat in acting upon the victims’ complaints.” However, the credulous Sheriff told media reporters when Smith was arrested, “I hope this does not impede the trust the public has with us.”
Source: WCIV
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