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A self-styled government “watchdog” in the South Carolina Lowcountry was arrested earlier this week, prompting unfounded cries of police corruption.
Calvin Coral “Skip” Hoagland, 76, of Naples, Florida, was arrested by officers of the Bluffton Police Department (BPD) and charged with trespassing after refusing to leave a meeting of the Beaufort County Republican Party (BCGOP) held at Bluffton’s Downtown Deli on Monday (January 27, 2025).
Hoagland was booked at the Beaufort County detention center on this charge at 8:17 p.m. EST and released at 10:47 a.m. EST on Tuesday (January 28, 2025). He was not required to post a bond – having been released on his own personal recognizance.
Hoagland’s allies are claiming the “outspoken advocate for constitutional liberties” was the victim of a “set-up,” and that Beaufort County sheriff PJ Tanner “directed” his arrest. According to citizen reporter Lee Granade, Hoagland pleaded with BCGOP’s guest of honor at the gathering – S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – as he was being led out of the venue in handcuffs.
“Wilson pretended to not hear the octogenarian being manhandled as Hoagland called out directly in front of him,” Granade reported.
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According to our sources, Tanner had no role in Hoagland’s arrest. Reached for comment, the sheriff told us he attended the meeting in his capacity as a county elected official and did not participate in – let alone direct – Hoagland’s apprehension.
“It’s Bluffton’s jurisdiction,” Tanner said. “I let Bluffton do its job.”
While Granade’s report portrayed Hoagland as a free speech champion whose First Amendment rights were violated by an oppressive law enforcement “puppet,” BCGOP officials told a different story.
According to party chairman Kevin Hennelly, Hoagland’s BCGOP membership was revoked two years ago after he allegedly engaged in a “hateful, racist, xenophobic rant” against Xiaodan Li – a member of the SCGOP executive committee.
Per Hennelly, during his “outburst” Hoagland falsely accused Li of being a spy – and a member of Chinese communist party. Outraged by his conduct, BCGOP voted 44-4 to revoke Hoagland’s membership unless he apologized.
Following this vote, Hoagland was sent a “registered letter” informing him of the decision. He was given fifteen days to either take “curative action” – i.e. apologize to Li – or be kicked out of the party, according to Hennelly.
Hoagland refused to apologize, and when the aforementioned deadline passed a subsequent letter was sent revoking his membership and refunding his dues, per Hennelly.
On several occasions since then, Hoagland has attempted to enter BCGOP gatherings – only to be refused access. None of those incidents ended in an arrest, however, and in each previous instance Hoagland eventually left the premises of his own volition.
The latest dust-up began last Friday (January 24, 2025) when Hoagland sent an email to Hennelly informing him he planned on attending Wilson’s speech to the group the following week. Hennelly responded the next day with a message to Hoagland reminding him “your membership in good standing was revoked.”
“You will not be admitted to this BCGOP event,” Hennelly wrote to Hoagland last Saturday (January 25, 2025).

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According to Granade’s report, Hoagland should have been granted access to the gathering because he was attending as a guest of another member in good standing – and therefore believed “he had good cause to be at the location.”
Hennelly was having none of it…
“We are a party of rules and we are a party that doesn’t tolerate any discrimination against anybody for race, religion or creed,” Hennelly told FITSNews. “When someone makes attacks like he made, they’re not welcome at BCGOP. He will not set foot in another BCGOP meeting unless he apologizes.”
“We cannot live up to our mission statement of growing and winning if we tolerate this kind of racism,” Hennelly added.
Hoagland’s supporters view him as some sort of champion for liberty and crusader against corruption, but those of us actually fighting for liberty and exposing corruption in South Carolina regard him as a performative nuisance – an off-putting blowhard chronically afflicted with “look at me” syndrome and the foulest, most toxic of tongues. As I’ve previously noted, Hoagland is “insufferably antagonistic and menacingly vulgar” in person – while behind the keyboard his “hate-filled missives have clogged email inboxes around the state for years.”
While there is certainly a role in the process for blunt instruments – and righteous indignation in the face of institutional malfeasance – if Hoagland were to occasionally accompany his profane tirades with substantive solutions (or documentation for the many outlandish claims he makes) he might be taken more seriously.
“Hoagland’s irrational bellicosity and baseless bullying has grown beyond tiresome – to the point it has completely undermined any good he ever did (or tried to do),” I noted back in 2023.
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To his credit, Hoagland did bring an important case before the S.C. supreme court regarding tourism marketing agencies which receive taxpayer funding. Unfortunately, he lost that case – dealing a tremendous setback to legitimate efforts by others to hold quasi-government agencies accountable for their spending of taxpayer dollars.
As for his undocumented claims, a Beaufort County jury awarded former Bluffton mayor Lisa Sulka $50 million in damages in 2022 after concluding he defamed her. The following year, Hoagland was forcibly removed from a Bluffton city council meeting when he refused to leave the podium when his time to speak had expired.
Hoagland’s allies claimed he was a victim of excessive force, but I noted at the time “it was Hoagland – not Bluffton council members or police – who created this altercation.”
“Hoagland repeatedly refused to abide by the rules governing his attendance at this meeting – and completely showed his ass when council members attempted to enforce those rules,” I wrote at the time. “More importantly, he repeatedly refused to follow the lawful instructions of local police after the decision was made to remove him for disruption – and even worse, he actively resisted them as they attempted to lawfully remove him from the premises.”
This week’s arrest would certainly appear to be more of the same…
While Hoagland clearly still has his defenders, other government critics in the Lowcountry are growing increasingly fed up with his antics.
“Anyone who knows me knows I have been as outspoken a critic of government for the past sixteen years as is possible,” Bluffton activist Laura Sterling wrote on her Facebook page. “And if anyone has a reason to be angry about government overreach… it’s me. But Hoagland refuses to rein in his anger… and it’s made any bit of good and pertinent information he discovered null and void.”
“I would have kicked him out, too,” she added, referring to the BCGOP meeting.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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3 comments
So the real headline is:
“Known rabble rouser arrested for disrupting a private meeting after being told not too”
Last I looked the BCGOP was a private organization, they have a right to have a meeting without disruptions EVEN when a public figure is addressing the body.
Reminds me of Henry Copeland of Charleston. He was a watchdog, too.
The Charleston County School district was secretly threatened with felony charges. They tried to ban Copeland from public district meetings. He did not said nothing out of order. He was getting too close to the district’s secrets
SCCOL – It is unlawful to attempt by any means, measures, or acts to hinder, prevent, or obstruct a citizen in the free exercise and enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution and laws of the United States or by the Constitution and laws of this State. Copeland’s case pertained to the CCSD violation banning him from government public meetings. But this matter is not government. Merely a political party meetings
Question: Since it was a “private meeting of a private organization”, why were the “publicly-funded” police present to keep everything orderly since it was a meeting of the “party of rules and a party that doesn’t tolerate any discrimination”? Just asking.
And as an aside, inquiring minds would like to also know—directly from you, Mr. Folks, as “those of us actually fighting for liberty and exposing corruption in South Carolina regard him as a performative nuisance—an off- putting blowhard chronically afflicted with ‘look at me’ syndrome and the foulest, most toxic of tongues.. insufferably antagonistic and menacing in person—while behind the keyboard his ‘hate-filled missives have clogged email inboxes around the state (substitute social media posts for email inboxes) for years.”, why you sing a different song when it comes to your constant praise of the “great leader” and apparent adulation of a new “rising political wanna-be’” in South Carolina politics? Just asking because inquiring minds want to know.