York County public defender involved in police shooting case awarded SC honor

A York County public defender has earned a state honor for his role in the case of a York man who shot four York County police officers in January.

Harry Dest, 16th Circuit chief public defender, has been chosen as the South Carolina Public Defender of the Year for 2018 by the state’s public defender association.

Dest has run the York County Public Defender office for 20 years and has been with the office since 1990.

Dest was nominated for his work on the case of Christian McCall. Boyd Young of the South Carolina capital litigation office, another lawyer in the case, nominated Dest.

McCall pleaded guilty in May to the murder of York County Sheriff’s Office Det. Mike Doty and attempted murder of three other officers.

McCall was sentenced to life in prison.

Dest was the lead lawyer of the legal team that negotiated McCall’s plea deal for life in prison without parole while waiving any appeals that avoided McCall facing the death penalty.

The plea deal also kept the victims of the crimes and their families from potentially dealing with decades of court appeals.

Dest also was lauded by public defenders for his role in creating South Carolina circuit public defender offices a decade ago, and his leadership at the 16th Circuit Office that covers York and Union counties.

Hugh Ryan, executive director of the S.C. Commission on Indigent Defense, said Dest’s leadership in South Carolina has helped make sure poor defendants are represented capably in courts across the state.

“Harry has been a leader in the public defender community for almost 30 years,” Ryan said. “Harry was instrumental in the establishment of the statewide public defender system in 2007 and was actually the first public defender in the state to be sworn in as a Circuit Public Defender. Harry Dest has done as much as anyone in helping shape the public defender system in South Carolina and this award is much deserved.”

Several of Dest’s former employees have gone on to become judges, chief public defenders and top deputy public defenders in other counties.