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The S.C. Highway Patrol is investigating several “not guilty” decisions in driving-under-the-influence cases against clients of state Sen. Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg attorney.

The S.C. Department of Public Safety’s Office of Professional Responsibility began looking into the matter at the request of Highway Patrol Troop 7 Commander Capt. C.N. Williamson, who sought the investigation after noticing that 10 DUI tickets were signed off as “not guilty.”

“This type of action by a trooper, finding driving-under-the-influence tickets not guilty without a trial, is improper; therefore I request that this matter be investigated further,” Williamson wrote in a Jan. 28 memo.

But Hutto says the situation is not unusual -- the cases were all handled in court in the way they always have been.

“These cases were handled in court the way they were supposed to be,” Hutto said.

Williamson requested the investigation after he received a transmittal of 17 tickets by Lance Cpl. David Smith, with 12 of the tickets signed off “not guilty,” according to the memo. Ten of the 12 “not guilty” tickets were for driving under the influence, one was for driving under suspension and one was for disregarding a traffic signal.

“All seventeen of these tickets were defendants that were being defended by Orangeburg attorney and Senator Brad Hutto,” the memo said.

A call was made to the Orangeburg Highway Patrol office for Smith, but Highway Patrol Sgt. W.R. Taylor said Smith would not be able to comment and referred calls to state Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden.

Gaulden said, “We don’t talk about ongoing investigations.”

Hutto called Smith “a very professional officer.”

And Hutto says there is nothing odd about the number of tickets handled by him or the trooper. A trooper can have 40, 50 or more cases during a court date, he said. And as a criminal defense attorney, Hutto says he handles hundreds of cases a year.

Some of the tickets date back to 2003.

“For me to have two or three cases with every trooper in the county in a year -- I’m sure it’s more than that,” Hutto said.

And to pick out 17 tickets, he said, “You can make statistics out of any of these numbers.”

The cases were all handled through the normal process in the courts, Hutto said.

Some may have been handled during status conferences or other court appearances in a process that is under way in courts every day, he said. For instance, a case may be dropped if the witness has moved out of state, or a client can plea bargain by pleading guilty to some charges while others are dropped. In traffic cases, the trooper often acts as the prosecutor.

“It could have been any one of a number of resolutions,” but there was nothing different in the way Smith handled the tickets, Hutto said. The tickets were dealt with in court and a judge had to sign off on them, he said.

Williamson’s memo also stated that, “This trasmittal was completed on Jan. 17, 2008, but the tickets had been signed off since Oct. 29, 2007.”

Hutto said if Williamson’s concern is a delay in turning in tickets, he can’t speak to that.

T&D City Editor Gene Crider can be reached by e-mail at gcrider@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5570.

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