Category: News

Meeting Monday, the Oconee Grand Jury returned six indictments charging a former school teacher and coach with sex crimes involving minors. Some of the indictments charging Richard Onley Gardner III contain multiple counts, alleging offenses involving a child under adult legal age. The indictments returned allow the prosecutor’s office to take the cases to the Oconee General Sessions Court. The […]

Oconee Sheriff-elect Mike Crenshaw recently graduated from the Newly-Elected Sheriffs’ School at the S.C. Sheriffs’ Association. Held in conjunction with the state’s Criminal Justice Academy, the week-long school covered subjects such as budget presentation, ethics compliance, employment law, civil liability and risk management. The school is held after every general election, to comply with state law mandating it. Besides the […]

Three weeks before taking office, Oconee Sheriff-elect Mike Crenshaw has revealed his staff of command officers. Five of them were introduced during a meeting last night in South Union of the Voice of Southern Oconee. Appearing together were Chief Deputy Kevin Davis; Capt. Travis Tilson, 911 and communications director; Capt. Greg Reed, who will continue to head criminal investigations; Capt. […]

Though you seem to hear more and more about home invasions, the victims of such crimes are still considered to have been chosen at random, in the estimation of Mike Crenshaw, the Oconee County Sheriff-elect. After his talk to the Walhalla Rotary Club, Crenshaw fielded a question from an audience member concerned about the violence associated with home invasions. The […]

Sheriff

An earthquake, centered on the Pickens County side of Lake Keowee, was “barely detectable,” according to Scott Krein, director of Oconee Emergency Services. The quake was felt at 5 a-m Saturday, Krein said, eight miles east-north-east of Salem.

The police in Seneca have taken down what they called a clandestine meth lab in a residential area. The police say they arrested two people at 214 Hopkins Road and dismantled a methamphetamine lab inside a storage building . The police say they acted Friday afternoon on a complaint. Hours later, nearby, they arrested the driver of a blue truck […]

U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles announces that the District of South Carolina collected $102,759,361 in Fiscal Year 2012 in criminal and civil actions. Of this amount, $6,654,883 was collected in criminal actions and $96,104,478 was collected in civil actions. Nettles said, “To put that in prospective it helps to know the total annual budget for this office is approximately $10 million. […]

A fire late Thursday afternoon in the Friendship Community near Seneca left one person dead and a second person injured. Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis identified the fatality as 55-year old Charles Oglesby. He was found on the floor next to a burned mattress. Addis said 46-year old Linda Kay Christian was airlifted from the residence on Cox Road to […]