ISSUE: Dismissed tickets

OUR OPINION: Senator can hope probe puts end to questions

The headlines about dismissed DUI tickets are not exactly what Orangeburg Sen. Brad Hutto or any politician hopes for. Yet the latest news about the matter may, in the end, be exactly the development Hutto needs.

The story centers around a request by S.C. Highway Patrol Capt. Chris Williamson for an internal investigation after receiving 17 tickets written by the same officer, 12 of which were signed off as “not guilty” by the officer.

Of the 12, 10 were for offenses related to driving under the influence, one for driving under suspension and another for disregarding a traffic-control device.

In all 17 cases, Hutto was the defense counsel, prompting questions about the case outcomes and possible senatorial influence.

For his part, Hutto has said the cases were not out of the ordinary.

“Everything was done in the courtroom in the presence of the judge.” Negotiations and plea bargains are part of the judicial process, Hutto said, adding there are any number of reasons the tickets could be reduced or dismissed.

The senator said in a criminal case witnesses may not show up or alcohol tests can come back negative. Some of the tickets in question were two and three years old.

“That’s the procedure we engage in in General Sessions Court,” he said. “When the case is called, they may plead or they may be dismissed.”

First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe has said he sees the matter as an internal Highway Patrol examination related to policy. He has said he sees no reason for an investigation by his office.

The story would seem to end there, but not so. Now the Highway Patrol has revealed it has asked the State Law Enforcement Division to take a look at the matter, not indicating just what aspect is to be probed.

Hutto said he has no idea what SLED is investigating but it is “nothing I did.”

How all this plays politically for Hutto is unclear. As long as he was left to periodically comment on a matter that was being handled internally by the Highway Patrol, and with uncertain prospects of how much information ever would be made public, voters could wonder about the senator’s role.

A probe by SLED may serve once and for all to put an end to the matter, particularly as to any role played by Hutto as the attorney of record in the cases.

For a senator with a re-election race on his hands and a politician being looked to as a Democratic gubernatorial prospect in 2010, the more definitively the matter can be laid to rest, the better the prospects that it will not resurface as a campaign issue of the type that opponents will use, even indirectly, to raise doubts about a candidate in a hard-hitting campaign.

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