President Lynn King welcomed all to our first "all in person" meeting since Covid at Palmera Inn. Full breakfast of eggs, potatoes and BACON was served! Almost back to normal. Wearing of badges, and "bingo" will return in July - for the new year.
Kevin Courtney offered the prayer and led the pledge to the flag.
Announcements:
Founders Night will take place June 19 at Spring Lake. Social time - 6 to 7, dinner (catered by Roy's) 7 to 9. Casual dress. Steve Stauffer will need help setting up - contact him if you can help. He will be sending out an email to see who will be attending so he can give the count to the caterer.
Next few week schedule: June 8 - meet at PALMERA - (speaker - Al Stokes - US marine shrimp farming technology}; June 15 - meet at ISLAND REC CENTER - (All About Island Rec); June 22 - meet at PALMERA (speaker - Bernie Riedel - Foundation Million Dollar Dinner & Polio Challenge); June 29 NO MEETING.
Sergeant at Arms, Suzi Oliver introduced two guests and collected Happy Dollars
Speaker:
Duffie Stone, Solicitor of the 14th Circuit was the speaker.
He took over the position of Solicitor in 2006 - he was appointed by Governor Mark Sanford to fill the unexpired term of Randolph Murdough III, who had taken it over from his father. He has been reelected three times. He is credited with the creation of a Career Criminal Unit which targets the most violent and habitual offenders; Intelligence-led prosecution which uses techology and information sharing. In 2015 he was appointed to Governor Nikki Haley's Domestic Violence Task Force and currently serves as Chair of the SC Domestic Violence Advisory Committee. A native of South Carolina, he is a graduate of Wofford College and the University of South Carolina School of Law. For 86 years the Solicitor's office was located in Hampton. Duffie moved it to Beaufort. The building had extra space and he was able to put it to excellent use to streamline handling of child sexual assault cases. When a child is sexually assaulted, there is a forensic interview (Hopeful Horizon) and then a physical examination. In the case of the exam, the child had to be driven to Charleston, which after such a trauma was not the best situation. Because of the extra space in the office they were able to set up a child friendly interview room as well as an exam room. As bad as the situation is, they have been able to reduce the trauma to the child.
He also talked about domestic violence and the fact that 80% of the victims do not want to prosecute. Women can't just leave a violent situation. Most times the abused person is dependent on the abuser and can see no way to survive on their own. Part of the new office is set aside for agencies that deal with victims of criminal and civil court.
He spoke of the importance of Intelligence led prosecution. In 2005 when Katrina hit New Orleans, the entire criminal justice system was washed away because the records were in the basement of the court house. In 2006 when Duffie began his position he realized the need to get everything web based. They started with a case management system and four years ago got Law Enforcement to send information electronically. Last April during shutdown, staff was able to take lap tops home to work. Preparation for a hurricane resulted in being prepared for a pandemic. The goal is to have victims have speedy trials, however there was a one time a backlog of 5,000 cases. This was being worked on and every year the backlog was decreasing. Because of the pandemic and not having court, the backlog now has 5600 pending cases. Moving forward the goal is to decrease this again. The biggest change in criminal justice is the use of technology by the criminals. That creates the need to adopt the same technology. The Family Justice Center is the only one in South Carolina. He invited us to see the facility.