Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Former South Carolina State Representative Jim Harrison has been found guilty of some charges.
Harrison was found guilty on two misconduct in office charges and one perjury charge. He was found not guilty of criminal conspiracy.
The jury returned the verdict Friday night around 10:30 p.m.
Harrison has been sentenced to 18 months.
Jim Harrison took the stand in his defense on Friday in Richland County Court.
Defense attorney Reggie Lloyd began by introducing Harrison to the jury, going over Harrison’s upbringing, education, and military and work history. Of his time as Chairman of the Judiciary, Harrison described his style as “laid back.”
Over the course of the trial, much has been made as to how much power the chairman can wield over the judiciary: he or she decides which bills come up for discussion, which subcommittee a bill is assigned to, and sets the calendar.
Harrison also testified that he missed court on Thursday because he was in Richland Memorial Hospital suffering from symptoms of a mini stroke.
Cross-examinaton of Harrison by David Pascoe
During cross examination, Special Prosecutor David Pascoe began with the letter Harrison submitted to the House Ethics Committee in 1999. In the letter, Harrison asked for an opinion about going to work for Richard Quinn & Associates.
Harrison testified that Richard Quinn must have written that letter and that he (Harrison) submitted it on his legislative letterhead. The letter states in part: “I have accepted a position as partner and COO at RQA.”
Harrison maintained in today’s testimony that he was not interested in being Chief Operations Officer at RQA and that he “was never COO, not a partner” in the company. That contradicts earlier testimony given by other witnesses in the case as to how Harrison presented himself over the years and the wording of the letter.
When he was employed at RQA, Harrison says that he dealt directly with Richard Quinn and that he considered Quinn to be his boss, he was not Quinn’s equal in the company.
Harrison was asked repeatedly by Pascoe to recall one specific instance over his 12 year employment at RQA and give an example of he did work on any specific political campaign. Harrison answered in the general that he and Richard Quinn may have had discussions about different campaigns but there may not be a physical record of his work.
Defense attorney re-direct
On re-direct, defense attorney Reggie Lloyd pointed out that political consultants such as Trey Walker or Adam Piper worked from the field but Richard Quinn did not, and yet Quinn had a statewide reputation of being who candidates should go to in order to run a successful political campaign.
Harrison aligned himself and the work that he did more closely to Quinn than to Walker and Piper.
As far as a letter to the House Ethics Committee dated Dec. 19, 2016, Harrison says that, after the publicity of Pascoe’s investigation and the trouble that Bobby Harrell had, he decided to re-check a statute in the Ethics Law and concluded that he had not reported income from RQA on his Statement of Economic Interest and that he probably should have.
He testified that he had filed his SEI electronically once, not noticing the portion of the electronic form that covered lobbyists and lobbyist principals income. By oversight, he left that section blank and had saved a copy of that filing to copy and paste in later SEI reports. It was his testimony that in 2016, he realized his error and sent the letter to the Ethics Committee.
Closing arguments
Pascoe goes back the a timeline in the Harrison case:
April 19, 1999: There is a letter at Richard Quinn & Associates laying out what seems to be a salary for Harrison based on lobbyist principal retainers
June 1, 1999: Harrison on the payroll at RQA
June 17, 1999: a non-public letter is sent to Becky Meacham, Chairman of SC House Ethics Committee, from Harrison asking an opinion about working for RQA. The letter states in part: “I have accepted a position as partner and COO at RQA”
July 12, 1999: Meacham sends a non-public, three-page reply warning Harrison about working at RQA on retainer, voting for bills involving RQA clients, using his position for benefit, working for a firm that deals with lobbyist principals, and putting any income disclosures on his Statement of Economic Interest
March 2000: Harrison’s SEI is filed correctly
2001-2010: RQA is not listed on Harrison’s SEI
2010: Rick Quinn returns to House; Harrison’s pay at RQA is reduced
2011-2012: Harrison doesn’t mention RQA on his SEI reports
Nov. 2, 2012: payment to Harrison stops when he leaves office
Dec. 19, 2016: Harrison sends a letter to the Ethics Commission admitting his failure to file his SEI properly.
Pascoe maintains that Harrison kept his relationship with RQA quiet and didn’t list it on his SEI because he knew that it was illegal.
Hunter Limbaugh presented defense’s closing arguments
Limbaugh said that the State’s case is based on the theory that Harrison’s relationship with RQA was secret when in fact Harrison had a private office at RQA, near the front entrance of the business. Anyone passing through would have seen Harrison’s name on the door.
It was also defense’s position that there is no shred of evidence supporting the State’s claim that Harrison voted a certain way because he was on the RQA payroll and that RQA took money from lobbyist principals.
Limbaugh stated the lobbyist principals never met Harrison and the suggestion that his pay at RQA was based on lobbyist principals’ payments to RQA can be attributed to a “bookkeeping exercise” by RQA’s bookkeeper Rebecca Mustian.
And, it was merely a coincidence that Harrison’s pay was cut from $84,000 per year to $2,000 a month in 2010, when Rick Quinn re-entered the House, and that Harrison’s pay ended when he left the Legislature. Limbaugh said that Harrison had actually closed his law office and taken a full time job elsewhere after leaving the House.
Pascoe was allowed to speak last, reiterating Harrison could not list a single political campaign that he worked on but could easily rattle off the names of corporate clients of RQA.
The timeline that showed Harrison voting against the Tobacco Tax (cigarette tax) bill until BlueCross/BlueShield contributed $15,000 to RQA; after that point Harrison sponsored the bill that did pass and had enough votes to override the veto of Governor Mark Sanford.