Excessive Force Probe: No Charges Against Former Midlands Police Chief

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

by ANDY FANCHER

***

South Carolina’s top prosecutor has declined to pursue charges against a former police chief who retired amid allegations of excessive force and other improprieties, saying his office will close the file and “not maintain any records of investigatory activity.”

Steven Jonas, the former police chief of South Congaree, S.C., retired in September 2025, just weeks after crashing his patrol car into an SUV carrying children. He has since been cleared in an unrelated — and previously unpublicized — criminal investigation launched the year before.

According to the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the probe into Jonas began on October 1, 2024, after the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department (LCSD) requested that agents investigate “allegations of excessive force” involving the newly minted chief.

The sheriff’s office likely sought an independent review to avoid any potential conflict of interest or perception of bias involving the 54-year-old lawman, who at the time oversaw a two-square-mile jurisdiction of roughly 2,400 residents.

Jonas’ fate wasn’t decided until more than a year after SLED was called in, when the office of Attorney General Alan Wilson declined to prosecute him on October 20, 2025 — just three days after FITSNews asked whether the probe was still active.

***

***

“We have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to merit criminal prosecution,” a deputy attorney general wrote (.pdf) to SLED last month. “Our office is closing out the file and will not maintain any records of investigatory activity.”

While the impetus for the investigation remains unclear, an LCSD spokesperson provided FITSNews with the “only” incident report in the agency’s system showing a deputy on scene with Jonas “anywhere close” to the date SLED was requested to investigate.

That report (.pdf) indicated the alleged “excessive force” may have occurred on September 24, 2024, when Jonas requested assistance at a gas station on Main Street. A suspected shoplifting had occurred, and he later advised a deputy en route that he was “on scene and fighting one.”

“On arrival,” the county deputy wrote in her report, “I observed Acting Chief Jonas in front of the gas-station doors attempting to detain a white male who was lying prone on the sidewalk. I then went over and Jonas advised that the male had his arm tucked underneath of him.”

The deputy wrote that she helped Jonas handcuff the suspect and lift him into a seated position. She added that Jonas “moved the male back” to “lean against” a brick wall.

“While Acting Chief Jonas conducted his investigation, I remained on scene for scene security,” the deputy wrote in the final paragraph of her report.

While it’s unclear whether this incident factored into the “allegations of excessive force,” it nonetheless came at the outset of a turbulent year for Jonas.

***

He had been appointed the town’s top cop just two months earlier, in August 2024, after more than twenty years with the South Congaree Police Department. His long-awaited promotion came with broad community support and the unofficial backing of Ebenezer Pentecostal Holiness Church in West Columbia.

Not even two months later, Jonas was under criminal investigation.

By January 2025, with that probe already months underway, a different side of Jonas allegedly emerged when he appears to have responded to reports of a “loud explosion” on West Berry Road, where a man was found to have suffered burns to more than 90 percent of his body in a backyard fire gone wrong.

The man was hospitalized and died two days later.

While allegedly at this scene, multiple sources familiar with the town say Jonas’ body-worn camera captured him speaking candidly with first responders about his role as chief. At one point, he allegedly admitted he either never wanted or no longer wanted the “fucking” job.

Those same sources allege that during the recording, Jonas is heard saying all he wanted to do was “fuck” people up and, at another point, that he was tired of “sucking political dick.” One source recalled Jonas describing things being done “penitentiary” style.

He reportedly had much more to say, as detailed in a previous FITSNews report that underscored how nearly everyone at South Congaree town hall ignored repeated phone calls, emails or text messages seeking acknowledgment of the alleged recording.

Only Mayor Cindy Campbell went on record at the time, neither confirming nor denying the existence of the body-worn camera footage and respectfully declining to comment.

***

RELATED | ‘SUCKING POLITICAL D***’

***

In keeping with the turbulence that defined Jonas’ final year in uniform, the alleged recording did not surface until after August 27, 2025, when he suffered a medical episode and veered his police cruiser into oncoming traffic on South Beltline Boulevard in Columbia.

Jonas’ vehicle struck an SUV carrying children at about 6:00 p.m. EDT that Wednesday, according to S.C. Highway Patrol records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The same records indicate several responding officers initially suspected Jonas was impaired. The lead trooper wrote that his eyes appeared “glassy,” his speech was “slow” and he was “unsteady on his feet,” adding that Jonas did not recall the impact itself.

“I asked him if he had consumed any medication,” the trooper noted in his written report (.pdf). “He stated some for his [REDACTED], but nothing else.”

Dash-camera footage from the same trooper’s vehicle shows Jonas slurring and stuttering through the roadside investigation before agreeing to perform multiple field-sobriety tests — losing his balance several times on one and “swaying almost the entire time” on another.

The same footage confirmed Jonas failed two of the three field-sobriety tests in the presence of town administrator Crystal Bouknight, who arrived on scene separately and later told the trooper her chief’s performance during the roadside evaluation was “terrible.”

Jonas, still dressed in a black police polo embroidered with his name, title and department, was arrested for driving under the influence and transported to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

There, he consented to a breathalyzer test and blew a 0.00. The unexpected result prompted a transfer to Prisma Health Richland Hospital, where he voluntarily provided a blood sample that later confirmed he had suffered a transient ischemic attack, or “mini-stroke.”

A toxicology report (.pdf) showed Jonas’ blood contained only 1.5 micrograms per milliliter of a redacted medication, believed to be one he was prescribed for daily use.

***

***

“Chief Jonas is on medical leave in accordance with town policy as he recovers,” town spokesperson Ashley Hunter said in a statement issued November 2, 2025, adding Bouknight’s thoughts were with “Chief Jonas and with the family in the other vehicle that was involved.”

Less than three weeks later, Jonas retired after 22 years with the department and just over a year as its police chief, apparently without disclosing to his replacement, 28-year-old Lt. James Marchant, that he was under investigation by SLED.

According to separation papers provided by the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy, Marchant certified that Jonas was neither under criminal investigation nor facing any charges at the time of his September 22, 2025, retirement. The attestations (.pdf) were false at the time they were made.

Whether Marchant knowingly misled the academy or simply failed to perform basic due diligence, he signed a form certifying the information was “complete and correct.”

Despite Jonas’ final year of service being shadowed by allegations of excessive force and the emergence of a recording in which he allegedly discussed using violence, he was allowed to retire from law enforcement and return to the private sector without consequence.

The town offered no comment on Wilson’s decision not to prosecute Jonas and confirmed to FITSNews it would not release his alleged body-worn camera footage from January 2025, citing a decade-old state law signed by then-Gov. Nikki Haley that shields such recordings from FOIA disclosure.

Unfortunately for South Carolinians, the S.C. General Assembly has done little to revisit or repeal Haley’s restrictive exemption — effectively keeping body-worn camera footage hidden from public view unless pried loose through a subpoena and, by extension, an attorney.

According to the town, Jonas served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1991 to 1996, later joining the S.C. Department of Public Safety and the Lexington Police Department before settling at South Congaree in 2002.

“We thank him for his service to our community and wish him well in his retirement,” the town wrote on Facebook ahead of his October 17, 2025, retirement party.

The celebration was quickly followed by Wilson’s decision not to prosecute Jonas, making him the first of two law-enforcement leaders to avoid state charges that month.

On October 29, 2025, a first-term solicitor declined to prosecute former Spartanburg County sheriff Chuck Wright after Wilson transferred the case to his circuit.

That same solicitor has yet to acknowledge multiple emails from this author, including questions about his public description of what Wright pleaded guilty to at the federal level.

Write to Andrew Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

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.