Officers charged criminally after women are drowned in van
COLUMBIA, S.C.—Two South Carolina law officers were charged Friday in the deaths of two women who drowned while locked in the back of a sheriff’s department van during Hurricane Florence.
Stephen Flood is charged with two counts each of reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter, according to online court records. Joshua Bishop faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
A judge set bond at $30,000 for Flood and $10,000 for Bishop and both were released after posting bail.
Flood, 66, and Bishop, 29, were fired from the Horry County Sheriff’s Office in October as part of an internal investigation. Authorities said the deputies were driving 45-yearold Wendy Newton and 43-year-old Nicolette Green through Marion County to a mental-health facility under a court order when their van was swept away by rising floodwaters as Hurricane Florence inundated the state.
According to records from the state Criminal Justice Academy, Flood made a “conscious decision” to drive around a barricade near the Little Pee Dee River, and Bishop didn’t try to stop him.
The powerful tropical system smashed into the Southeast coast as a hurricane Sept. 14, triggering severe flooding as it weakened yet nearly stalled over the Carolinas for days.
Green and Newton drowned in the back of the locked van on Sept. 18.
The families of both women tearfully addressed the judge Friday. Rose Hershberger, Green’s oldest daughter and a high school senior, mourned her mother missing milestones like her graduation.
“Every night is just a constant lack of sleep,” Hershberger said. “All I see is my mother, and I hear her screams and her cries.”
Lawyers for both Bishop and Flood said their clients had no criminal history and both have ties to the community. Flood’s lawyer, Allie Argoe, said her client had no intention to hurt the women in the van.
“We hope the truth of what really happened that day will come out,” Argoe said.
During a November legislative hearing, advocates for the women said neither one was violent. Newton was only seeking medicine for her fear and anxiety the day she died, a family attorney said, while Green’s family said she was committed at a regular mental health appointment by a counselor she had never seen before.
Horry County officials have said that the deputies tried unsuccessfully to rescue the women from the van, which was on its side, blocking the door the deputies would have needed to unlock with a key.