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Beaufort County’s clerk of court resigned in July after she was indicted on four counts of embezzlement and one count of misconduct in office.
Clerk of Court Elizabeth Smith was the subject of a two-month investigation by the South Carolina Ethics Commission for allegedly misusing court funds, 14th Circuit Solicitor Dufe Stone said. Smith was charged with writing three checks for about $3,400 for personal insurance policies for her family in 2006, 2007 and 2008, Stone said. She was also charged with using more than $13,000 in public funds to pay the insurance on a home her family owns in Pawley’s Island.
Some of the money is believed to have come from an account made up of fnes and other fees paid by court users, Stone said.
A grand jury handed down the indictments in late July. The next step is the arraignment, which Stone said he expecteds to take place by late August or early September. Judge Brooks Goldsmith of Lancaster has been appointed to handle the arraignment.
The three smaller embezzlement charges could carry a fve-year prison sentence while the larger one could carry 10 years, Stone said.
Meanwhile, Smith’s husband, Manning Smith, has been removed from his seat as judge in Beaufort County Drug Court.
