FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – Suspended Sheriff Kenney Boone will be removed from state Criminal Justice Academy documentation as head of the sheriff’s office.
The South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy sent the sheriff’s office an email asking the chief deputy or the acting sheriff to send a letter removing Boone from documentation.
The sheriff’s office responded, as a formality, by sending the request, signed by Chief Deputy Glen Kirby, stating Boone should be removed “as where he has been suspended as Sheriff of Florence County.” The state Criminal Justice Academy received the request on Friday.
A grand jury indicted Boone in April on charges of embezzlement and misconduct. The indictment alleges that Boone used both county and federal funds allocated to the Florence County Sheriff’s Office for his own personal use.
W.C. “Billy” Barnes was appointed the interim sheriff by Gov. Henry McMaster on April 24.
Boone has retained attorneys Butch Bowers and Robert Bolchoz to represent him. “We look forward to representing Sheriff Boone and getting this matter resolved,” Bowers told News13 on Friday.
The indictment claims Boone, “while serving in his capacity as Sheriff for Florence County, did purchase or cause to be purchased from the Florence County Sheriffs Office Federal Narcotics Account funds a variety of consumer type goods, including but not limited to bicycle equipment, groceries, coolers, baseball equipment, electronics, or clothing, from various vendors including but not limited to, Academy Sports, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sam’s, Wal-Mart, Shell, Best Buy, Bicycle World, Rapid Weight Loss, Piggly Wiggly, Mainstream Boutique, GameStop, Mast General Store, and various restaurants, whereby he then unlawfully converted $10,000 or less worth of such purchases to his personal use.”
Boone was placed under house arrest and GPS monitoring. He was ordered to have no contact with the sheriff’s department or any property of the sheriff’s department.
This case is being investigated by the State Law Enforcement Division and will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.