Three South Carolina sheriff’s deputies have been charged with misconduct, accused of reporting five “hoax emergencies” about finding dead bodies while on duty, officials announced Tuesday.
Chesterfield County Sheriff Cambo Streater said he learned about “possible misconduct by three of our deputies” last week.
“Based on the nature of the allegations, I requested the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to investigate. SLED has begun their inquiry and the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office is cooperating fully,” he said in a statement on Facebook.
The three officers — First Sgt. Justin Tyler Reichard, 28; Sgt. Darien Myles Roseau, 25; and Deputy Killian Daniel Loflin, 26 — were charged Monday with misconduct in office, criminal conspiracy and aggravated breach of peace, SLED announced Tuesday.
An arrest warrant released by SLED said the three officers while on duty on Feb. 4 reported "five hoax emergencies" in the Cheraw, Chesterfield, McBee and Pageland municipalities.
The false calls to convenience stores or local municipal law enforcement agencies notified whoever picked up about the "location of a 'dead body' within the municipalities," the warrant said.
The hoax calls triggered emergency responses from local law enforcement agencies.
The warrant said the charges were based on interviews with the three officers and were corroborated by "information obtained during the SLED investigation."
It's not clear what authorities believe motivated the fake calls.
The three were booked at the Chesterfield County Detention Center on Monday and released on $30,000 bonds.
The officers are on leave from the sheriff's office pending the investigation, WPDE-TV of Florence reported. It’s not immediately clear whether they have attorneys.
The sheriff’s office has more than 50 sworn deputies who serve the county’s over 40,000 residents, according to its website.