Officer Stephen Chavis Answered A Welfare Check Call — Then Lost His Badge And Got Charged
A Charleston Police officer was sent to check if someone was okay. Prosecutors say what allegedly happened on that call ended his career.
Stephen Austin Chavis, 27, answered a welfare-check call on James Island on August 28 — on duty, in uniform, in a home he had been sent to because someone might need help. According to arrest warrants, that is where he engaged in an intimate encounter with the person he had been sent to check on.
The Charleston Police Department learned of the allegation on September 8. Chavis was suspended without pay the same day. An internal investigation found policy violations, and on September 23 the department fired him.
Then the state took over. SLED agents arrested Chavis on October 7 and charged him with misconduct in office — a felony that carries up to ten years. He was booked into the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center. The case now sits with the Ninth Circuit Solicitor’s Office; a bond hearing has not been publicly scheduled.
Charleston Police Chief Chito Walker didn’t hedge when the arrest was announced: “Police officers are given authority and access because the public trusts us to use both responsibly.”
The sequence here is the point. No citizen complaint started this — the department investigated its own officer, fired him in fifteen days, and handed the case to the state. The badge came off before the cuffs went on.
OhDangReally will track the bond hearing and the solicitor’s next move.
