"You were someone who was paid to protect, and yet all you did was harm. You deserve a harsher punishment, but that's not up to me." Those are lines from a victim's statement provided to the Washington Post from a former South Carolina high school student who was sexually abused by a Richland County school police officer. That former deputy, Jamel Bradley, was arrested in 2019 and sentenced on Tuesday to three years of probation. As the Post reports, the 45-year-old married father of two could have been sentenced to up to 15 years had he been convicted of the charges he initially faced; he was instead offered a plea deal that saw him plead guilty to assault and battery of one student and sexual battery of another.
The allegations racked up during Bradley's years at Spring Valley High School, reports the Post and Courier: A complaint about inappropriate behavior on Bradley's part was first made in 2010; his behavior was flagged again five years later—WIS reports a captain in the sheriff's department saw him in his patrol car with a teen at a Target parking lot late one night (he got a verbal reprimand) and a concerned parent emailed the superintendent about a "sexual relationship" he was having with a student (the claim was dismissed due to lack of evidence). In 2018, a sophomore said Bradley had sexually assaulted her in his office.
A sheriff's department investigator who looked into that complaint told the teen she believed her but the department was "prematurely closing the case without looking at all of the evidence" (the girl's therapist was present for the conversation and took notes). The investigator described Bradley as "a unicorn in the force … considered rare and precious and above reproach." He was not pulled from his job patrolling the high school. Months later, the then-17-year-old who provided the Post with the above statement says she was sexually abused by Bradley. In the wake of Bradley's 2019 arrest, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott referred to him as "a monster that worked among us that we did not know about."
story continues below
The Post describes Bradley as a former star basketball player at the University of South Carolina who Lott "personally recruited" to be a school police officer in 2007. The Post and Courier reports that Richland County solicitors recommended he not be added to the sex offender registry and instead participate in sex offender counseling, but the judge ordered that he be added to the registry. (More South Carolina stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
