We have had a ton of people reach out to us about our October 6th article showing one example of why we need judicial reform … The Appeal of Davis v. Leupp (HERE) … but if you enjoyed that, wait until you see the below example of needed judicial reform and how a SC Court ruled on a (false) sworn affidavit for a politically connected player … Chad Connelly.

Perjury is a CRIME, right? A felony, right? YES, yes it is!!!

2024 SC Judicial Reform

Know that Judicial Reform is the talk of political circles right now … and folks will be pushing it hard in 2024 from both the Right & the Left. What we have seen talked about so far are relative half measures … i.e., changing the composition of the Judicial Merit Selection Committee (JMSC) – not getting rid of the JMSC entirely and not “real” judicial reform. But we suspect there will be much more to talk about than little tweaks as voters learn exactly how bad it is in our SC Courts. Stay tuned …

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A Head Scratcher Example

It has been THREE years now … and still ongoing … but this example starts with a February 12th, 2020, Declaratory Judgment Lawsuit filed simply asking the SC Courts to:

1. IMMEDIATELY STOP Chad Connelly & his Board from taking out excessive administrative fees from the 100% government run non-profit Exceptional SC (our state’s failed and Nation’s worst rated K-12 school choice program) … and

2. DECLARE exactly how the law is supposed to be interpreted as the SC Department of Revenue was not enforcing the law as directed and K-12 children with special needs were suffering.

The problem … Chad Connelly, the former SCGOP Chairman, current Newberry County GOP State EC, Drew McKissick’s mentor, and buddy to Attorney General Alan Wilson and a ton of other legislators … filed a false sworn affidavit with the SC Court in Newberry essentially saying that if the Court cut off his personal $11,300 / month payment and other overhead expenses, children would suffer as he was doing much better at that time and had raised $1,045,000 in the past 21 days thus justifying his fee and going over the established legal limits for administrative overhead.

Say what??? Yes, we were equally perplexed as you can’t break the law just because you are Chad Connelly … or can you??? The law is the law and has to be followed, right???

THE LIE / PERJURY: Even worse … Chad and Exceptional SC had not raised $1,045,000 over the applicable past 21-day period as Chad falsely swore in his affidavit. Documents later surfaced that he had only procured $99,201 in non-binding “pledges”, not even donations, and nowhere close to $1,045,000 in the cash donations Chad claimed while under SC Department of Revenue supervision!!!

No, we did not believe the original sworn affidavit … but once we got the proof we filed a MOTION FOR PERJURY, CONTEMPT, AND SANCTIONS FOR FALSE AFFIDAVIT. How did the Newberry Court rule? The Court refused to do anything … simply saying they “did not rely” on the false sworn affidavit in ruling that I, as plaintiff and a donor to Exceptional SC, did not have standing to file the declaratory judgment lawsuit. Those two rulings are under appeal right now (see legal filings below).

Seriously??? The Court “did not rely” upon the perjured Sworn Affidavit Chad Connelly filed with the Court … so it is OK and he gets a pass???

The Court may not have “relied” upon the false & perjured Sworn Affidavit … but it was false, it was perjury, and it was filed with the SC Court in an effort to defeat the Declaratory Judgement Lawsuit … keep his $11,300 monthly payments coming … and it was filed to cover up the wrongdoing. However, we did not quit and found the PROOF that it was false. #NeverSURRENDER!

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU? What do you think would have happened if you or I filed a false sworn affidavit with a SC Court? I can assure you I would probably be in jail to this day. But not the politically connected Chad Connelly … he is buddies with Governor McMaster & Lt. Governor Pamela Evette … so he slides by … or will he? Well that is not right and that is not equal application of the law … hence, our needed SC JUDICIAL REFORM!!!

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Perjury is a CRIME

Yes, perjury is a crime and a serious crime … in fact it is a Class F “felony” with up to 5 years in prison … and nowhere in the law does it state that it is ok to disregard perjury just because the Court “did not rely” upon the false sworn affidavit.

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SLED Investigation

Oh … it get’s worse. What was even more serious here was the fact that at the time, Chad Connelly was also under SC State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigation for a complaint I filed alleging EMBEZZELMENT. Chad and the Exceptional SC Board were taking out more money in overhead expenses … significantly more … and technically that appears to read as EMBEZZELMENT.

See the image and description below. What do you think?

And don’t forget … Chad had me “barred” from the SC State Executive Committee Meetings because he said I lied about him being under SLED investigation … and I’m still banned from those meetings to this day even though I am the duly elected State Executive Committeeman from the Greenville County Republican Party … all for TELLING THE TRUTH. (HERE)

So, was Chad trying to cover up a crime? It appears so to me … but what will “career prosecutors” at the Attorney General’s Office say?

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AG to Prosecute?

Tomorrow we will have for you what law enforcement and SC Attorney General Alan Wilson’s Office has to say about prosecuting this case … stay tuned. 😉

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LEGAL FILINGS:

Record on Appeal v01 (all the case filings): HERE

Record on Appeal v02: HERE

Appellant Davis’ Final Brief: HERE

Respondent Connelly, et al. Final Brief: HERE

Appellant Davis’ Final Reply: HERE

2022-02-11 – FOIA Response – SLED Report: HERE

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Case Update

Huge WIN!: Just to put everything in perspective, the original case itself was technically dismissed due to “standing” (sound familiar?) and is currently under appeal (including this perjury issue) … but the end result is that we “won” as Chad Connelly, the Executive Director & Tom Persons, the Chairman were both let go / resigned (to put it kindly) from Exceptional SC (the Nation’s worst rated K-12 private school choice program) in July 2020 during and because of this case. Although we had been telling the SC Department of Revenue and legislators that Chad Connelly was violating the law … nothing was done until we filed this lawsuit and brought more public attention to the matter.

Good news for the kids … bad news for the witnessing of exactly how corrupt our system is.

Dum spiro spero

(“While I breathe, I hope”)

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