Former Chester Sheriff Underwood, deputy plead guilty to state corruption charges (2024)

CHESTER— The disgraced former sheriff and his chief deputy won't face more prison time for their crimes committed in office.

But state prosecutors said there was some satisfaction in the May 29 guilty pleas from former Sheriff Alex Underwood and former deputy Robert Sprouse— entered in the community where they were once sworn to uphold the law.

"The real value here to the state today is that I think for the first time we're going to have an admission by Mr. Underwood of the wrong he's done," said Creighton Waters, senior prosecutor for the S.C. Attorney General's Office. "That's the crucial part of why we're here today. In South Carolina, there will be accountability for those who hold the public trust and certainly the highest level of public trust."

In an extradition from the Big Sandy federal penitentiary in Kentucky, Underwood appeared at the Chester County courthouse to enter pleas for criminal conspiracy, misconduct in officeand use of office for financial gain. He's serving 46 months forconspiracy to violate federal law, deprivation of civil rights during an unlawful arrest, obstruction of justice, and misuse of public funds and personnel.

With the support of prosecutors, Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith accepted Underwood's guilty plea and let him serve his time concurrently with the federal sentence. His term will finish by May 2025.

Sprouse finished his federal sentence in November and was sentenced to time-served by the judge, following Underwood's hearing.

The state will continue to pursue charges against a third former official with the Sheriff's Office, one-time Deputy Johnny Neal. He remains in federal custody.

In the federal trial, the trio was convicted for using their positions to enrich themselves by obtaining money to which they were not entitled, then obstructed investigations into their misconduct.

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Evidence showed Underwood and Neal violated the rights of a Chester County resident who filmed the Sheriff’s Office’s response to a crash on Nov. 20, 2018, by arresting and detaining him without probable cause.

When the FBI began investigating these civil rights violations, Sprouse and Neal created false incident reports and Sprouse lied to the FBI to cover up their misconduct.

The three defendants also directed on-duty Sheriff’s Office employees to provide manual labor or other services that personally benefited Underwood and Sprouse, including requiring them to help with extensive renovations of a barn on Underwood’s property to add a bar, a television viewing area and other amenities.

"The deputies termed it the Barn Mahal, like the Taj Mahal," Waters said. "We had people on the county dime working at his property."

Underwood and Sprouse took family members on a trip to a conference in Reno, Nevada, and charged the costs to the Sheriff’s Office, state and federal officials said.

Underwood and Neal also engaged in a scheme in which they skimmed money from payments owed to other Sheriff’s Office employees for off-duty work at public safety checkpoints and security details. Waters said the latter included providing security at strip clubs; in some cases, Underwood would sleep in his car in the club parking lot, but staff would be instructed not to bother him, Waters said.

Underwood's crimes were chronicled in The Post and Courier's"Above the Law"investigation in 2019, whichlooked at misdeeds of South Carolina's sheriffs.