Senator Ted Stevens' home was searched by the FBI. Watch for fallout.
Greg Hambrick on Thomas Ravenel:
A similar Charleston case a few years back involving locals distributing cocaine to friends ended up with probation. While prison can be avoided, the political reality can’t. It’s back to the million-dollar commercial real estate market for Ravenel. Poor guy.
American Entropy's Geoff expounds on a post from FP Passport on foreign policy:
It's doubtful that much of the reported weapon systems mentioned in the deal, "which includes advanced satellite-guided bombs, upgrades to its fighters and new naval vessels," would be much use in the asymmetrical conflict currently being fought in Iraq. That said, they could be 'improvised'. The fate of untold numbers of US servicepersons may in fact be jeopardized by this deal.
To find the perfect Reaganite candidate is a futile quest. America will never again see a leader with the fortitude and integrity of George Washington. Likely we will not have another President who could face the trials of a country divided against itself, as Lincoln once did, or manage a national Depression followed by a World War, as Franklin Roosevelt was compelled to do.
Old Controller: Getting Involved is a Good Thing
Babbie takes the P&C to task for "Editors' Choices & 'Letters to the Editor' on CCSD."
Trafficking is not limited to the substantive offenses of purchasing, possessing, and selling large amounts of controlled substances. Conspiring and attempting to do those acts also constitute trafficking. The part of the trafficking statute pertinent to this case is as follows: “Any person who knowingly … attempts[] or conspires to … purchase … ten grams or more of cocaine … is guilty of a felony which is known as ‘trafficking in cocaine.’” S.C. Code Ann. § 44-53-370(e)(2) (2002).
Posted by: Anonymous | 31 July 2007 at 21:28
I guess Ted Stevens career is going down those internet tubes!
Posted by: Saphyre Rose | 01 August 2007 at 05:37
..."Sarah," a former white-collar worker at a major Peninsula employer, recalls stopping by an after-hours party not long ago to sober up. Collapsing on a large coach with some friends and acquaintances, she looked around and saw just how prevalent cocaine was in the Charleston party scene.
"Each person on the sofa had their own bag of coke," she says.
In June, local millionaire developer and recently-elected State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel was indicted on charges that he distributed cocaine to his friends. It would be tragic if it wasn't so darn familiar. Ravenel's story mirrors a cocaine bust involving three Charleston attorneys in 2004 that was bizarrely linked to accusations of cocaine use by Charleston professionals more than 15 years earlier.
Coke in Charleston isn't exclusively a white-collar problem, but they're the more elusive users, says Charleston Police spokesman Charles Francis.
"It's hard to find who they are," he says. "They aren't going to go on the street corner to buy it. They have a friend of a friend with a connection."
Federal prosecutors have kept the details of Ravenel's bust under wraps, citing an ongoing investigation, leaving many a socialite to speculate who among Charleston's elite will be the next guest at a resort/rehab clinic.
Three years ago, Assistant Solicitor Damon Cook and defense lawyers Tara Anderson Thompson and Todd Anthony Strich pleaded guilty to cocaine distribution. Like Ravenel, the three lawyers were not accused of selling the drug, just passing it around, putting them somewhere between dealers and philanthropists. They each received probation for the offense, but Thompson is serving five years in prison for her role in an unrelated drug trafficking case.
This wasn't Thompson's first time in the news regarding the local drug scene. In 1988, she accused Circuit Judge Larry Richter of offering her cocaine at a party. Richter has denied the allegations and was never charged with a crime.
In 2005, Thompson told the Post and Courier that, "after practicing law for 17 years, what I've seen and the criminals I've represented ... I realized it was commonplace, and it was commonplace in Charleston."
Posted by: Cocaine in Charleston | 01 August 2007 at 10:23
COLUMBIA, SC (AP) - Prosecutors and defense attorneys for former South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel want more time to review materials in his case on a federal cocaine charge.
The 45-year-old multimillionaire developer has pleaded not guilty to one federal count of possession with intent to distribute less than 500 grams of cocaine.
Ravenel is free on bond. He has been in a New Mexico rehab facility for several weeks. He resigned as treasurer last month.
Jury selection had been scheduled to begin next month.
If the request is granted, the trial for Ravenel and co-defendant Michael Miller would be postponed until November.
Ravenel faces up to 20 years in prison if he's convicted.
Posted by: Anonymous | 17 August 2007 at 21:58
Needs more time? What a farce! If you pay lawyers enough money they will do anything. The judicial process is in a sad state of affairs. Money and drugs are driving the system. Let’s all celebrate.
Posted by: Anonymous | 21 August 2007 at 19:51
Needs more time? What a farce! If you pay lawyers enough money they will do anything. The judicial process is in a sad state of affairs. Money and drugs are driving the system. Let’s all celebrate.
Posted by: Anonymous | 21 August 2007 at 19:53
I went on a couple of dates with Thomas back in 1989. He was so drunk on the 2nd and LAST date we had, that he stumbled out of the restaurant in Mt. Pleasant. I saw my life flash before my eyes when he insisted on driving-back over the bridge- the old bridge, mind you, into Charleston. I am sure a guardian angel got us safely over it.
I managed to call a cab from his house and took it all the way home to Columbia. He was so disgusting. I cannot and won’t even try to tell the things he pulled on me, just short of rape, thank God he was too drunk to really hurt me.
I saw his mom shortly after that and she asked me if I would be seeing him again, and I said respectfully, “No, ma-am”. She didn’t have a bit of a problem with that!
God help us if we allow that kind of mind come into our government. And may God help you, Thomas Ravenel. The only way out is through.
Mrs. Marti Comyns of Columbia, SC
Posted by: Marti Comyns | 21 August 2007 at 20:15
It IS, what it IS!
COCAINE DISTRIBUTION! If his sentence is reduced from 20 years to a matter of months or nothing. What is the message the Prosecutors are sending to the Drug Smugglers? Hey, CRIME PAYS! CRIME PAYS BIGTIME! If you hire the right attorney and pay them enough money, you'll get off with minimal punishment.
We should all be very proud of our justice system.
Posted by: COCAINE DISTRIBUTION | 21 August 2007 at 22:18
It IS, what it IS!
COCAINE DISTRIBUTION! If his sentence is reduced from 20 years to a matter of months or nothing. What is the message the Prosecutors are sending to the Drug Smugglers? Hey, CRIME PAYS! CRIME PAYS BIGTIME! If you hire the right attorney and pay them enough money, you'll get off with minimal punishment.
We should all be very proud of our justice system.
Posted by: COCAINE DISTRIBUTION | 21 August 2007 at 22:23
Prosecutors said taxpayers paid for the sisters’ spending sprees, which included four homes in Edisto Beach, 10 luxury cars, boats, and expensive jewelry from New York and Alaska vacations.
C & D co-owner Charlene Corley, 46, was charged with wire fraud and money laundering and pleaded guilty to both Thursday. A sentencing date has not been set.
She was accused of bilking taxpayers by inflating shipping costs for Defense Department materials that cost a few dollars.
In one example, C & D collected $998,798 to ship two 19-cent bolt washers, court documents show.
Corley’s twin sister, Darlene Wooten, shot herself Oct. 2 after Defense Department investigators confronted her with evidence of a nine-year scheme that included billing the Pentagon for $71.6 million in shipping costs.
Posted by: Edisto Beach | 22 August 2007 at 00:54
If drugs are running the system, why cannot people with medical problems get decent pain care?
Stop being stupid "anonymous".
And as for COCAINE DISTRIBUTION, you want me to be proud of a justice system that puts a man in jail for having drugs that deals with his chronic pain?
No, I am not proud of the system. It is politics only with your types.
Politics can be a necessary evil but most times it is ineffective and full of corruption, waste and greed.
But go ahead and thump your chests about the glory of the justice system...I just hope you never get sick.
Posted by: Saphyre Rose | 22 August 2007 at 10:03
Third man indicted with Ravenel on cocaine charges
By RICK BRUNDRETT - rbrundrett@thestate.com
A third person has been indicted along with former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel on a federal charge of conspiring to possess and distribute cocaine, according to an amended indictment issued this afternoon.
The defendant was identified as Pasquale Pellicoro, though no other identifying information about him or details about his alleged crime were presented in the indictment. A grand jury meeting in U.S. District Court in Columbia issued the amended indictment, known as a superseding indictment.
Federal prosecutors and Ravenels attorneys could not be immediately reached for comment.
Ravenel, Pellicoro and a third defendant, Michael L. Miller, 25, of Mount Pleasant, each is charged with conspiring to possess and distribute less than 500 grams of cocaine, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The amended indictment also charges Miller with eight new counts of possession with intent to distribute and distributing less than 500 grams of cocaine from Sept. 20, 2005, through Jan. 3, 2006.
Posted by: Third Man Indicted | 22 August 2007 at 17:14
Third man indicted with Ravenel on cocaine charges
By RICK BRUNDRETT - rbrundrett@thestate.com
A third person has been indicted along with former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel on a federal charge of conspiring to possess and distribute cocaine, according to an amended indictment issued this afternoon.
The defendant was identified as Pasquale Pellicoro, though no other identifying information about him or details about his alleged crime were presented in the indictment. A grand jury meeting in U.S. District Court in Columbia issued the amended indictment, known as a superseding indictment.
Federal prosecutors and Ravenels attorneys could not be immediately reached for comment.
Ravenel, Pellicoro and a third defendant, Michael L. Miller, 25, of Mount Pleasant, each is charged with conspiring to possess and distribute less than 500 grams of cocaine, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The amended indictment also charges Miller with eight new counts of possession with intent to distribute and distributing less than 500 grams of cocaine from Sept. 20, 2005, through Jan. 3, 2006.
Posted by: Third Man Indicted | 22 August 2007 at 17:17
Charleston Post & Courier - Around the Globe Wine Tasting: Romania. Wine expert Pasquale Pellicoro will host a wine tasting featuring wines from Romania. The tasting will include at least four wines accompanied by the country's traditional hors d'oeuvres. $10 per person. 5:30-7
Source: www.charleston.net
Wine: French revision
Worldnews.com - Promotion not protection will save France's ailing industry The storming of the Bastille 218 years ago this week is just one of the many revolts that pepper France's often heated history . Revolutionary spirit is still strong - France's president
Posted by: France | 22 August 2007 at 17:58
You have a "DeJay" and a "State Treasurer/Real Estate developer" and a "Wine Distributor". Now, all the Feds have to do is find their "Crooked Attorney". Oh, and lets not forget the "Money Launderer". All you have to do is find the biggest jackazz Attorney and that will be the ONE!
Posted by: Lets See | 22 August 2007 at 22:18
Pellicoro is advertised as a regular wine-tasting expert at the J. Bistro restaurant in Mount Pleasant, according to the restaurant's Web site.
In a 2003 federal breach-of-contract lawsuit in which he was the plaintiff, Pellicoro was described as an Italian citizen who came to the U.S. on an "E2," or business investor, visa.
The amended indictment, known as a superseding indictment, said only that Ravenel, Pellicoro and Miller "knowingly and intentionally did combine, conspire and agree together and have tacit understanding with each other and others to possess and distribute "a quantity of cocaine."
Posted by: Italian Citizen | 23 August 2007 at 00:31
"What makes this one interesting is that I heard Pellicoro’s name attached to this mess last week — along with the name of at least one other high-profile Charleston mover and shaker".
Posted by: Anonymous | 23 August 2007 at 11:49
Pasquale Pellicoro
http://www.charleston.net/photos/2007/sep/05/3050/
Posted by: anonymous | 23 February 2009 at 20:37