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What started with a packed courtroom on Wednesday slowly thinned to a handful of reporters, authorities and relatives as a federal judge weighed a litany of motions in the child pornography case against disgraced former South Carolina lawmaker Robert John ‘R.J.’ May III.
The hearing unfolded at the Matthew J. Perry Courthouse in Columbia, S.C., where the former GOP firebrand appeared in a striped jumpsuit marked “ECDC” — shorthand for the Edgefield County Detention Center, where he has spent the bulk of his pretrial incarceration since being denied bond in June.
Escorted into the high-ceilinged federal courtroom by U.S. Marshals, May — who has elected to represent himself — entered with one arm shackled and another holding a stack of files as he appeared before U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie.
Wednesday’s pretrial hearing followed a flurry of motions from May seeking to suppress evidence, along with subsequent responses from the government urging denial on the grounds that his filings failed to meet the required legal standards.
“We’ve had a lot of filings in the past 24 hours,” Judge Currie remarked from the bench, quipping that her printer had malfunctioned under the strain of so many documents.
Though the hearing stretched for nearly three hours, the court addressed only a handful of items, as May had not yet received three of the government’s responses to his motions (.pdf, .pdf and .pdf) until shortly before Wednesday’s session.
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With two federal public defenders serving as standby counsel, May told the court he was “ready to respond appropriately” to several items but needed more time to “digest the government’s response” to the aforementioned motions.
The government raised no objection to deferring consideration of the remaining motions until next Wednesday, October 1, 2025.
Among the most significant items discussed Wednesday was May’s motion to suppress the federal search warrant executed at his home last year – which uncovered no child sexual abuse material (CSAM) but allegedly produced evidence that he had briefly operated a Kik account under the alias “joebidennnn69” to send and receive such material.
Echoing arguments submitted in his first motion, May claimed the lead investigator on his case — Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agent Britton Lorenzen — misled a magistrate in order to obtain the warrant, pointing to what he described as blatant inconsistencies between her probable cause language and her subsequent testimony before the grand jury (and later at his detention hearing).
As outlined in his first of several motions, May argued the search of his home for “possession of child pornography” was secured based on Lorenzen’s assurance to a magistrate that investigators were likely to find images or videos of CSAM, citing her claim that individuals who collect such material “rarely, if ever, dispose of their sexually explicit materials.”
By his June 2025 detention hearing, however, May emphasized that Lorenzen testified in open court that it is “very, very common” to execute search warrants and uncover “zero evidence” of CSAM — due in part to the prevalence of cloud-based storage systems such as Kik.
“Pre-search warrant, she says one thing,” May testified on Wednesday. “Post-search warrant, she says another.”
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Lorenzen, a former deputy with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office — albeit prior to the tumultuous tenure of ex-sheriff Chuck Wright — consistently smirked as May spoke during Wednesday’s hearing, at one point quietly laughing with a colleague at her table while turning to others seated behind her with a smile.
Lorenzen was later approached by a colleague outside the courtroom during a brief recess, who teasingly called her a “liar,” loud enough to be heard across the foyer.
Literal joking aside, the government argued there were no false or inconsistent statements in Lorenzen’s testimony, asserting instead that May was pushing “mischaracterizations” while “cherry-picking” details to build what prosecutors called a baseless argument.
Prosecutors further noted that child pornography was not the “only thing” authorities were seeking when they executed the residential search warrant, further emphasizing the abundance of forensic evidence linking May to the “joebidennnn69” account.
Among that evidence, prosecutors pointed to 250 CSAM videos recovered from Kik — an account registered from May’s home IP address and tied to the same model phone as his. They stressed that 432 “distributions” were linked to his home IP address, with an additional 19 traced to his phone’s IP address.
Additional forensic data from May’s laptop was emphasized, including a search for the term “hebephile” — a type of pedophilia that had purportedly been mentioned in a Kik chat moments earlier.
Prosecutors further pointed to GoPro videos they said linked May to another alias known as “Eric Rentling,” which he allegedly used to communicate, travel, and record sexual encounters with prostitutes in Colombia.
Judge Currie later remarked that she was “not inclined” to allow his South American dalliances to be incorporated at trial.
A ruling on May’s motion to suppress evidence from the residential warrant was taken under advisement, with a decision expected next Wednesday.
Also discussed was May’s motion in limine (.pdf) seeking to exclude evidence — specifically, “any reference to any smartphone application other than Kik.” The request is pertinent given that conversations May allegedly had over Kik included references and crossovers to other platforms such as Mega, Telegram and Sessions.
This issue served as a springboard into another argument that prosecutors warned the judge would be “time-consuming” and occupy the remainder of Wednesday’s hearing: the government’s own motion in limine and accompanying Rule 404(b) notice (.pdf).
Put simply in May’s case, a 404(b) notice is the government proposing to introduce “uncharged” acts — such as explicit context from his alleged Kik conversations that fall outside the ten counts in his indictment — to help demonstrate his “state of mind” and “intent.”
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R.J. May III being arrested by federal authorities outside his West Columbia home on June 11, 2025. (Andrew Fancher/FITSNews)
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Within the government’s motion was also a request to use a range of summary charts and demonstrative aids to condense voluminous records and assist the jury in evaluating evidence tied to May’s Kik activity, his devices and his accounts.
Several of the proposed charts — containing context prosecutors deemed “relevant” — drew objections, extended discussion and pointed questions from Judge Currie, who pressed the government with inquiries such as, “how is this admissible?” and “why is this necessary?”
From the defense table, May argued that including comments made by other Kik users would be “overly prejudicial,” adding that references to his alleged operation of other apps — such as those previously mentioned — “have nothing to do with the issue at hand.”
Still, a majority of the government’s proposed charts were granted without objection, including the Map of Distributions Summary Chart, Distributions by IP Summary Chart, IP Collision Summary Chart and the May Phone Kik Activity Summary Chart.
As for May’s motion to change venue — citing pretrial publicity so extensive that he could not obtain a fair and impartial trial — Currie deferred any decision until jury selection, remarking that not everyone follows media coverage closely or remembers it in detail.
Wednesday’s hearing concluded with discussion of May being transported to HSI for additional review of case materials.
“We’ll wait on the court’s ruling next week,” U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said outside the federal courthouse. “I think there’s going to be some more arguments and motions next week… Stay tuned for October 1.”
This story may be updated.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
(Dynal Nolan/FITSNews)
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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