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South Carolina congresswoman accuses 4 men, including ex-fiancé, of being sexual ‘predators’ • Alabama Reflector

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alabamareflector.com – Shaun Chornobroff – 2025-02-11 12:48:00

South Carolina congresswoman accuses 4 men, including ex-fiancé, of being sexual ‘predators’

by Shaun Chornobroff, Alabama Reflector
February 11, 2025

This story originally appeared on South Carolina Daily Gazette.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, accused four men, including her ex-fiancé, of “some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable” during a nearly hour-long prepared speech Monday night on the House floor.

The 1st District congresswoman said she discovered thousands of photos taken with hidden cameras as well as recordings the “predators” made of themselves sexual assaulting women over years. She was among the victims. Some were underage girls, she said.

“None of you will get away with it,” said Mace, who has represented the Lowcountry since 2020. “None of you will because tonight is about justice for all of the women that you all raped, that you all filmed, that you all photographed, that you all abused for years.”

Headshots of the four men, along with where they live, were on a poster that read “PREDATORS. STAY AWAY FROM.”

All four men strongly denied the allegations to The Post and Courier after the speech.

“I categorically deny these allegations. I take this matter seriously and will cooperate fully with any necessary legal processes to clear my name,” her ex-fiancé, Patrick Bryant of Charleston County, told the newspaper.

The two broke up in late 2023, which would be after Mace said she found the evidence.

The State Law Enforcement Division confirmed after her speech that Bryant is being investigated for assault, harassment and voyeurism.

The investigation started Dec. 14, 2023, after SLED was contacted by U.S. Capitol Police. Multiple interviews and search warrants have happened since. A “well-documented case file” will eventually be available. But the “complex” case is ongoing and involves multiple lawyers, SLED said in a statement.

Once the investigation is complete, the file will be sent to a prosecutor for review, it concluded.

The statement did not name any of the other three men Mace called out in her speech.

One reached by the Gazette said he will “fight this in a court of law.”

“I unequivocally deny all the allegations made against me which are baseless, repugnant and defamatory,” Eric Bowman, former owner of the Charleston Battery soccer team, responded in a text.

‘This monster stole my body’

Mace’s speech started with a declaration that she was going “scorched earth.”

Mace, 47, said she first discovered the crimes after confronting Bryant, a computer software entrepreneur, about a text she received. He initially put his phone in a safe but later gave her the combination.

She looked through his phone and saw a woman unconscious being sexually assaulted. She also found photos of a teenager undressed “in the kind of underwear a child would wear,” she said.

Mace then said she saw another video of a slender woman with long brown hair. The woman was unaware she was being filmed, Mace said.

She turned up the volume and heard her own voice. The congresswoman zoomed in on the video. There was no denying it was her.

“My entire body was paralyzed, and I couldn’t move,” an emotional Mace said. “Were my feet on the floor? Was I breathing? I had no idea. I could feel pain shooting out of my heart, out of my chest.”

“This monster stole my body. It felt like I had been raped,” she said.

It happened in 2022, she said, while she and Bryant were at a function at an Isle of Palms property owned by him and another man she called out as part of the group of predators. She had two vodka sodas and blacked out, something she said had never happened before.

“My memories of that night are like flashes in and out of dark, flashes in and out of the night,” she said. “I was raped that night.”

Mace, who announced her engagement to Bryant in May 2022, said she could not be sure if it was Bryant who did it.

On one camera alone, she said, she found 10,633 videos, plus numerous photos of adult women and about a dozen photos of underage girls.

“I found file after file,” she said, adding that it seemed most were unaware of what was happening.

The night before she left Bryant in November 2023, Mace said she was physically assaulted by him. She added she still has a mark to this day from it.

“Rather than see this mark as a scar, I see this mark of a free woman, free from a monster,” Mace said.

Mace mentioned her Christian faith throughout her speech. She also mentioned how the daughter of Ethel Lance, a 70-year-old victim of the 2015 Mother Emmanuel shooting, forgave the killer.

“I don’t want to forgive. I don’t want to, but I know that as a woman of faith, I have to,” Mace said.

Throughout her speech, the phone number of a hotline for victims was displayed on a poster beside her. Mace encouraged any victims of the men to call (843) 212-7048.

Attorney general accusations

Mace also accused Attorney General Alan Wilson, an expected foe in the 2026 governor’s race, of not addressing the crimes against her and other women — allegations his office called “categorically false.”

During her speech, Mace stood next to a poster of Wilson that read “Do-Nothing Attorney General,” a moniker she has routinely used to describe him.

Mace said she turned evidence of her findings over to the attorney general, who failed to take any action with it and at one point refused further evidence.

But Wilson said neither he nor anyone in his office had any knowledge of the accusations until her speech. His office has not received any reports or requests for assistance from any law enforcement agency or prosecutor’s office, his office said in a statement released shortly after the speech.

Beyond that, it is not the attorney general’s job to start a police investigation, the statement noted.

“Ms. Mace either does not understand or is purposefully mischaracterizing the role of the attorney general” as the state’s chief prosecutor, it said.

As for her claim that Wilson refused to receive evidence, his office said, “the attorney general would always direct any citizen to provide evidence of a crime to the appropriate law enforcement agency, which would be responsible for the investigation.”

The lengthy statement also pointed out that Wilson and Mace have been at multiple events together over the past six months and that Mace has Wilson’s personal cellphone number.

“Not once has she approached or reached out to him regarding any of her concerns,” it read.

Mace has made stops around the state in recent weeks as she contemplates a gubernatorial bid. Gov. Henry McMaster is ineligible to run again, creating wide-open field.

So far, only former reality TV star and state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has announced a run for governor, which he did on X last week.

But Mace, Wilson and Lt. Gov. Pam Evette are the three most expected to run. Mace has been highly critical of both Wilson and Evette on social media.

Transgender controversies

Mace has also been making headlines for recent comments about transgender people.

In November, she led the charge to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms in the U.S. Capitol and House office buildings.

Her resolution followed Delaware electing Rep. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson then issued a rule that “all single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex.”

Mace then introduced legislation to expand the rule to all federal buildings, as well as a separate bill applying the rule to restrooms nationwide. It threatens to prohibit federal aid to any company or government not complying. No action has been taken on either of those bills yet.

Last Thursday, Mace was criticized as using offensive language toward trans people during a House Oversight Committee hearing on spending by the United States Agency for International Development, known as USAID, which the Trump administration has halted.

Mace accused USAID of “funding some of the dumbest, I mean stupidest, just dumbest initiatives imaginable, all supported by the left,” citing a list of diversity and transgender advocacy initiatives funded around the world.

“Our foreign assistance system is badly broken, and this ends now,” she said in a video of her questioning she proudly included in her weekly newsletter.

When a Democrat on the committee told Mace she was using a slur to the LGBTQ community, she interrupted him and repeated the term multiple times, saying, “I really don’t care. You want penises in women’s bathrooms, and I’m not going to have it.”

The day before, she received a personal shoutout from President Donald Trump when he signed an executive order prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in female sports.

During her speech Monday on the House floor, Mace touted multiple bills she introduced to protect women.

They include legislation titled the Prison Rape Prevention Act, which requires prisoners to be housed and transported based on their biological sex. She said she introduced the bill “so a woman can’t be raped by a man who thinks he’s a woman.”

And she doubled down on her critics.

“I’ll take all of the arrows and all of the attacks, if it means I’m taking these attacks for each and every one of you,” Mace said. “I’m doing this today because we can’t delay justice. Justice victims like myself need to move forward.”

Mace cannot be sued for her accusations. The Speech or Debate Clause protects members of Congress from lawsuits for what is said on the floor.

SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post South Carolina congresswoman accuses 4 men, including ex-fiancé, of being sexual ‘predators’ • Alabama Reflector appeared first on alabamareflector.com

News from the South - Alabama News Feed

Study: Alabama’s moral turpitude laws contribute to racial disenfranchisement disparities

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alabamareflector.com – Ralph Chapoco – 2025-09-02 07:01:00


Robert Cheeks, 82, voted for the first time in Birmingham’s 2025 municipal elections after spending nearly 40 years in prison under Alabama’s felony disenfranchisement laws. A new Return My Vote report reveals Black Alabamians are four times more likely than whites to lose voting rights due to felony convictions. The study found significant racial disparities in disenfranchisement rates, particularly in counties with large Black populations, like those in the Black Belt. Reinstating voting rights in Alabama is complex, often requiring pardons or certificates post-sentence. Cheeks, who obtained his certificate in 2022, described voting as a meaningful restoration of his citizenship.

by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
September 2, 2025

BIRMINGHAM — Robert Cheeks cast a ballot in Birmingham’s municipal elections last week and received a standing ovation from poll workers.

It was the first time that Cheeks, 82, had voted. Until the most recent election, his criminal history barred him from participating in the electoral process.

“I had never voted before and it was always my wish to vote,” he said after he cast his ballot. “I had the opportunity, encouraged, to vote, and I said I want to exercise my right as a citizen in the state, and I wanted to vote because I had never voted before.”

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For Black Alabamians like Cheeks who have criminal convictions, getting the right to vote restored can be difficult, according to a new report from Return My Vote, an organization that assists people with criminal convictions with regaining their right to vote.

The study, “Alabama’s Moral Turpitude Law Disproportionately Strips Black Citizens of Their Voting Rights,” found that Black Alabamians were four times more likely to lose their right to vote than white Alabamians.

“The most basic, and most important, finding is that overall that people who were dropped from the voter file or denied registration due to felony conviction, a majority of them were Black,” said Richard Fording, a professor of political science at the University of Alabama and a co-author of the study. “Not a large majority, but over 50% of them were Black. It was about twice the percentage of the general population that is Black in Alabama, and so, of course that is alarming.”

Alabama laws generally deny the vote to those convicted of crimes of moral turpitude, a broad phrase that was subject to interpretation until the state began listing specific crimes under it in 2017. While some states automatically restore voting rights after a person completes a sentence, Alabama has a more complicated process.

While only a handful of crimes can permanently cost a person their vote, some require pardons from the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. Others require a Certificate of Eligibility to Register to Vote once they have completed their sentence, which includes payment of any fines, fees and restitution.

The authors of the study studied 25,000 people removed from the voter rolls or disqualified from voting between 2017 and 2020 due to criminal conviction. Study authors were able to review the information only after the Campaign Legal Center had obtained the records after a federal judge had required the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office to release it.

Disparities

According to the study, Black men were disenfranchised at a rate of 22.4 citizens per 1,000 men of voting age. That is almost four times the rate for their white counterparts, whose rate was 6.7 citizens per 1,000.

The rate for disenfranchising Black women was 3.9 citizens per 1,000, almost twice the rate of white women, whose disenfranchisement rate was 2.1 citizens per 1,000 white women.

Counties with significant Black populations had some of the highest Black disenfranchisement rates and largest racial disparities in disenfranchisement. Seven of the 10 counties with the highest rates of disenfranchised voters are within the Black Belt. The rate for disenfranchising Black men in Monroe, more than 40% Black, was 40.6, compared to 8 per 1,000 for white men. In Perry County, with a Black population of 70%, the rate was 30 citizens per 1,000 Black men of voting age. The rate was 11.4 for white men, almost three times lower.

The disparities are less pronounced for women in the same counties, but they still exist. In Monroe County, Black women are disenfranchised at a rate of 5.6 citizens per 1,000 Black women who are at least 18 years old. For white women in that county, the rate is 2.4, less than half.

Study authors stated in the report that even though there is some uncertainty with the information because of problems collecting data, after reviewing the Uniform Crime Report data obtained from the FBI website, the findings indicated that more Blacks are disenfranchised than whites even when criminal convictions are considered.

“Nevertheless, the most important takeaway is that the disproportionate percentage of arrests for disqualifying offenses by Blacks in Alabama (42%) cannot fully account for the significantly higher percentage of Blacks disenfranchised by the state (52%) during 2017-2021,” the report states.

The study also found that Blacks have a more difficult time regaining their right to vote after they are removed from the voter rolls after getting convicted of a crime.

Authors also investigated the number of people who were removed from the voter rolls from 2017-2021 who had regained their voting rights and registered to vote once again by 2024. According to the study, 1,034 people who are Black reregistered to vote after they completed their sentence, about 8.3% of the total. That is less than the almost 13% of whites registered to vote after a criminal conviction.

The study suggested that the disparities could stem from disparities in the application of Alabama’s felony disenfranchisement law and uneven methods of voter file maintenance in the state.

“Regardless of the reason, the significant variation in county-level disenfranchisement rates calls for further investigation into how Alabama’s felony disenfranchisement law is being implemented at the local level,” the report said. “This is especially important given federal law that requires uniform implementation of state election laws across counties.”

‘It means so much’

Cheeks spent almost 40 years in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections after receiving a mandatory life sentence in 1985 for a robbery. Cheeks had prior convictions of forgery and assault, leading to the sentence but no one was physically injured. Cheeks spent 30 years working in the kitchen at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer without pay, according to Alabama Appleseed.

Cheeks was released in July 2022. His criminal convictions required him to obtain a Certificate of Eligibility to Register to Vote, which he applied for and received from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Cheeks, with the help of supporters, then registered to vote with the Board of Registrars in Jefferson County and acquired full citizenship once again after spending nearly four decades incarcerated in Alabama’s prisons.

“It is more important now than it would have been in the first place,” Cheeks said of voting. “I have been so anxious over the years to vote. I have been hearing so much about voting, and I wanted to express my opportunity for the right to vote. It is granted to American citizens by right, and I wanted to do that. I am so thankful. It is a blessing, and it means so much.”

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Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post Study: Alabama’s moral turpitude laws contribute to racial disenfranchisement disparities appeared first on alabamareflector.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content highlights issues of racial disparities and systemic barriers related to felony disenfranchisement in Alabama, focusing on the disproportionate impact on Black citizens. It emphasizes social justice concerns and critiques existing laws and their implementation, which aligns with a Center-Left perspective that advocates for voting rights expansion and racial equity. The tone is factual and empathetic, without overt partisan language, but the focus on structural inequalities and reform suggests a leaning toward progressive policy viewpoints.

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Monroe County Football Coach speaks out, calls for more support for team

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www.youtube.com – WKRG – 2025-09-02 04:45:40

SUMMARY: Monroe County High School football coach Robert Wilkerson is urging more support from parents, alumni, and the community. Since starting in April, Wilkerson has faced challenges such as low game attendance, limited adult volunteers for filming and chain crew, and a lack of trainers. He publicly expressed concerns on Facebook, emphasizing the need for people to attend games and boost team morale. Wilkerson highlights issues like outdated training equipment and lack of pride in the school. He calls for increased community involvement through their “adopt a tiger” program and donations via an Amazon wish list to improve the team’s resources.

Head Coach Robert Wilkerson says building the team starts with more people attending games and helping the young players.

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Alabama Lawmakers Threaten to Dismantle Athletic Association After New Rule | Sept. 1, 2025 | News 1

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www.youtube.com – WHNT News 19 – 2025-09-01 20:31:26

SUMMARY: Alabama lawmakers are challenging a new rule by the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) that sidelines certain high school athletes using the $7,000 tax credit under the CHOOSE Act. Senators and representatives argue the rule violates state law, which protects player eligibility and opposes restrictions impacting athletes’ ability to participate. They call for increased oversight of the AHSAA and suggest revising or repealing the CHOOSE Act. Concerns focus on fairness but emphasize that opportunities for student-athletes should not be compromised. Some lawmakers are even considering dismantling the AHSAA due to these controversial regulations.

High school athletes who transfer schools using financial aid like the CHOOSE Act are ineligible to play for one year, according to the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

News 19 is North Alabama’s News Leader! We are the CBS affiliate in North Alabama and the Tennessee Valley since November 28, 1963.

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