Columbia SC Criminal Defense Law Blog

Many people fail to understand the consequences of drunk driving until they cause an accident that injures or even kills another person. A South Carolina man is facing felony drunk driving charges after he caused an accident in Simpsonville, a town about 90 minutes outside Columbia. The accident involved one other car and the impact killed the 38-year-old driver and injured his 15-year-old daughter.

The accident occurred on the evening of May 20 after the 24-year-old man was driving his pickup on Lee Vaughn Road. He turned right, ran off the road and lost control. When he tried to correct the vehicle, he hit the other car. The driver of the other car was wearing a seatbelt and became trapped inside the car. He died at the scene of the accident.

There are some types of charges that South Carolina prosecutors will pursue more zealously than others. Crimes with any kind of social stigma attached or which otherwise generate attention-grabbing headlines seem to warrant large-scale operations and far-ranging charges. Internet crimes, for example, are among the latest buzzwords in law enforcement, and defendants accused of identity theft, fraud and other computer crimes may find themselves facing an onslaught of fevered accusations.

Authorities in one neighboring state recently arrested 14 individuals after a months-long investigation, an investigation characterized by the county sheriff as "just following little tid-bits of a trail" comprised of calls to police regarding allegedly compromised identities. Those little tid-bits have led to hundreds of criminal charges filed, in one individual defendant's case no fewer than 199 separate counts of identity theft. Some of the defendants allegedly stole the identities of seniors for whom they worked as caretakers.

Most South Carolina residents have no doubt heard about the Boston Marathon tragedy that occurred on April 15. The bombing killed three people and injured many more. Since people are generally good-natured, many want to help the victims financially. Many scammers are taking advantage of this and have found a way to defraud people through Internet crimes.

Shortly after the bombings, scammers registered hundreds of domain names in order to create fake charities. These scammers will also use social media sites and direct emails to encourage people to donate money. In addition, these websites contain spyware and viruses that can seriously harm a computer.

Alcohol can impair judgment, which is why it is dangerous to consume it and then drive. Driving while under the influence led a man in Greenville -- about 90 minutes outside Columbia -- to hit parked cars, a parking garage toll booth and a tree, among other objects. Police arrested him for drunk driving and several other offenses shortly after the accidents.

While leaving a parking garage on the evening of April 7, the 35-year-old man hit two parked cars and the pay booth before hitting and breaking the garage's exit arm. The man then drove down the street until he drove up on the sidewalk and hit a tree.