Former Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin
/ FILE
COLUMBIA (WACH, AP) -- A federal judge has approved where former Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin will serve his 17 year prison term for drug conspiracy and racketeering.
Melvin, 48, will spend the next 212 months incarcerated at Butner, North Carolina. U.S. District Court Judge Cameron Currie suggested the location for security reasons.
Melvin was sentenced earlier this month for taking kickbacks to protect drug dealers.
Authorities say Melvin ruled his county like a kingpin. They claim he repeatedly took hundreds of dollars in handshake bribes to keep drug dealers out of trouble and also took kickbacks for catering barbecue dinners for county functions and contracts.
Prosecutors asked for a 30-year sentence for the man the drug dealers called "Big Dog," calling Melvin's case the most audacious example of public corruption in South Carolina in the past two decades.
Melvin, who is currently lodged in the Lexington County Detention Center awaiting U.S. Marshal transport, maintains his innocence.
When released, he will not be able to possess a firearm and have to submit to DNA collection and drug tests.
Read the entire judgement by clicking here.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forWACH