‘Nightmare’: Ex-York County SC cop now has 40 years prison for child sex crimes
A former South Carolina police officer at York County departments who is already in prison for child sex abuse convictions has been sentenced to 10 more years after pleading guilty to more crimes.
Charles Eugene “Chuck” Price, 53, now has to serve 40 years.
Price was sentenced to 30 years prison in 2023 after a York County jury found him guilty of child sex crimes. Yet he still faced other charges. Thursday, he was in York County criminal court again, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of child sex offenses and received 10 more years in prison.
The guilty pleas end five years of criminal cases alleging Price sexually abused children. Prosecutors dropped more than 50 remaining charges against him as part of a plea deal .
Price pleaded guilty in what is called an Alford plea. Visiting Judge Eugene Griffith said that in an Alford plea, a defendant pleads guilty without admitting guilt, because there is a substantial likelihood he would be found guilty if the cases went to trial. Price gets the benefit of the new additional sentence being just 10 years instead of possible life in prison if convicted at trial, Griffith said.
Price was a police officer at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, and previously in the towns of Fort Mill and Clover, before his arrest in 2020 on more than 50 charges.
Winthrop police fired him after the arrest. The sex acts he has been convicted of happened as far back as 2004 while Price was off duty, prosecutors said.
Victim: Price, a “decorated police officer,” was supposed to protect
Two victims spoke Thursday in court. One said Price was “supposed to protect” people because he was known as a “devoted police officer,” but he did not protect her.
She said she endured and now wants to be an advocate for other child survivors.
The other victim said she has endured “a nightmare for 28 years.”
The woman said in court: “It is finally over.”
The Herald does not identify victims of sex crimes.
Price: Alford guilty plea has no admission of guilt
Price, who has been incarcerated for five years since his arrest, said nothing in court except to agree to plead guilty. He also waived a pending appeal of the 30 years he got after the trial.
He told Griffith he understood he got 10 more years in prison added to the 30 he’s already serving.
Under the Alford plea, Price pleaded guilty but did not have to admit guilt. When convicted at trial in 2023, he denied the charges then, too.
Price’s lawyer, Ben Hasty, asked Griffith to accept the plea deal .
Prosecutor and Judge praise victims’ courage
Prosecutor Chris Epting told Judge Griffith the victims in the cases — whom he called survivors — showed courage through not just five years of court process after Price was arrested in 2020, but for continuing to live after the sex abuse.
“They showed tremendous strength,” Epting said. “For them it has been their whole life. ... It’s now over, today we close the book.”
The sex acts happened off duty and had no connection to his police duties. Thursday’s plea deal includes dismissing the remaining charges against Price.
Judge Griffith said he agreed to accept the deal that added 10 more years to Price’s prison sentence because it was negotiated between prosecutors and Price’s lawyer.
“I have admiration for them as survivors,” Griffith said of the victims, adding that he hoped they could not get some sort of closure.
