Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone avoids prison, pleads guilty to embezzlement

Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone used taxpayer money to buy things like booze, iPads, sports equipment, clothing, speakers, wall chargers and a hair dryer for his wife last Valentine’s Day. The money came from his federal narcotics fund, the county general fund and his campaign fund.

Boone spent $700 at restaurants, over $2,500 at Sam’s Club and $4,000 at Best Buy, thousands on family out-of-state trips — more than $17,000 in all.

Wednesday, the bill for Boone’s flush times came due.

At an unscheduled 24-minute hearing at the Sumter County courthouse, Boone dodged a prison sentence and pleaded guilty to reduced charges of embezzlement — a felony — and misconduct in office.

State Judge William McKinnon of York County said he could have given Boone up to 15 years in prison but decided not to give any prison time.

“When a public official, especially a law enforcement official, breaches the public trust, it’s obviously a serious matter — funds were taken,” said McKinnon after hearing about Boone’s conversion of public money for his own use.

But McKinnon said he decided on leniency — a five-year suspended sentence, meaning no prison — because of Boone’s long career in law enforcement and his “immediate admission of guilt and his cooperation with the investigation.

Boone also will have to pay $17,014 in restitution, McKinnon said.

Boone’s guilty pleas Wednesday to one count of embezzlement and one count of misconduct in office came nine months after he was indicted last April by the State Grand Jury on numerous charges of embezzlement and misconduct in office. All the other charges were dropped.

Boone, 54, who sported a fresh haircut and wore a dark gray suit, light blue shirt and repp tie, will also be on probation for at least 18 months. The restitution he has agreed to pay includes $2,000 he took out of his campaign account.

“I am not a thief,” Boone told the judge, explaining that it has been tough for his children to see him wearing an ankle monitor tracking device the court used to track his movements. “I am very embarrassed. I apologize particularly for what this has done to my wife and my family. Politics is a beast. There’s a lot of pressure in politics.”

Saying “I’m sorry” and that he takes “full responsibility,” Boone apologized to the people of Florence County, law enforcement and the people whose trust he has lost. “That’s not me,” he told the judge. “It’s a new day. There’s no doubt I will be better citizen.”

Boone also apologized to top State Law Enforcement Division agent Paul “Cricket” Grant for rebuffing SLED’s help during the October 2018 Florence shooting that left two officers dead and others wounded during a shootout that attracted national attention. Instead of asking SLED for help, Boone announced he would use the Richland County Sheriff’s Department for the crime scene investigation.

▪ Boone recalled that Grant had told Boone after SLED was turned down that he (Boone) would regret that. “You were right,” said Boone, who also publicly apologized to SLED chief Mark Keel.

During the hearing, state attorney general’s prosecutor Heather Weiss told the judge about Boone’s long list of illegal expenditures, listing numerous stores, items bought and the amounts of money he spent.

Later Wednesday, Boone was removed from office by executive order of the governor.

Odd expenditures

Boone’s downfall began in the fall of 2018, Weiss said, when his staff noted Boone was making numerous odd expenditures from office funds. They reported him to the State Law Enforcement Division, telling agents that Boone was buying items from stores — Sam’s, Verizon and Best Buy, to name a few — where his department had accounts. But the items were “never seen at the sheriff’s office,” Weiss said.

When his employees asked Boone about the money, he “was not open to discussions about his spending,” Weiss said.

Boone also began acting differently in 2018, Weiss said. “He was out of the office for days on end and often unable to be reached by command staff and office employees.” After getting married in August 2018, Boone bought “a more expensive home ... and new Yukon for his wife to drive.” Yukons are large Buick SUVs that carry a price tag of around $60,000 and up, and Boone had window tinting and custom floor mats put in the Yukon, Weiss said.

“In January 2019, the purchases picked up dramatically,” Weiss said, adding that Boone used public money to buy meals, groceries and “two large cases of beer.”

Items bought by Boone using public money would “show up on Instagram as gifts for his wife,” Weiss said.

When Boone was finally arrested in April of last year, he quickly admitted what he had done. “He kept insisting it was not because he was living beyond his means, but his bank account proved otherwise,” Weiss said. “Boone had used every form of credit that he had.”

The charges alleged he used both county and federal funds allocated to the sheriff’s office for his personal use. The State Law Enforcement Division investigated the case.

Butch Bowers, Boone’s attorney, told the judge, “There’s no doubt that Mr. Boone had a very serious lapse of judgment and betrayed the good people of Florence County. But against that backdrop, he has done the honorable thing today and taken responsibility for his actions. He has also expressed remorse for his conduct. ... Prior to these events, Your Honor, it is important to note he has served the citizens of Florence County well — very well — for over 30 years as a deputy sheriff and then sheriff. ”

The no-prison sentence, which includes probation, was left up to the judge. Bowers had asked for probation, and Weiss did not seek even a modest prison sentence.

Boone is the latest South Carolina sheriff to run afoul of the law.

In 2013, former Abbeville County Sheriff Charles Goodwin stepped down after pleading guilty to misconduct in office for receiving kickbacks. He was put on probation and sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

▪ In 2014, former Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker was convicted by a jury on charges he gave inmates at his jail access to women, weapons, alcohol and the Internet.

▪ In 2015, longtime Sheriff Jimmy Metts was sentenced to a year in federal prison for his role in a scheme to help undocumented immigrants get out of his jail.

▪ Last fall, former Greenville County Sheriff Will Lewis was sentenced to a year in prison last fall after a conviction for using the power of his office to coerce a female employee into an extra marital affair.

Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood has been suspended from office and has been accused of falsifying police reports, charges of abuse of police power and misusing public money, among other charges.

One of Boone’s mottoes, displayed on his department’s website, was a quotation from Edmund Burke: “All that evil needs to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing.”

Acting Florence County Sheriff Billy Barnes, 80, a former longtime county sheriff, was on hand to witness Boone’s sentencing.

“I hope he will take this opportunity to try to straighten his life out and move forward,” said Barnes.

Florence County, traversed by the main East Coast north-south Interstate 95, is between Columbia and Myrtle Beach. It is a large area of swamps, rivers, forests and tobacco and other farms.

This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone avoids prison, pleads guilty to embezzlement."