A new lawsuit against Anderson County was filed Friday challenging the hiring of a private investigator.
At issue is whether the investigator, Eddie Tallon, is technically a county employee or a contractor for a law firm the council has hired.
Candy Kern-Fuller, the attorney filing the lawsuit, said that because the county has paid the investigator directly, either a council vote or a bidding process was required.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Patricia Jones and Wayne Taylor, who are “local business owners, citizens, residents and taxpayers,” according to the complaint. Jones and Taylor could not be reached for comment, Kern-Fuller said her clients would not be talking about the case.
The council’s investigation is being led by the Nexsen Pruet law firm and is looking into county finances and legal matters that occurred before the present council members took office.
Nexsen Pruet has hired two investigators to help it.
County and Nexsen Pruet officials both said the two investigators are contract employees of the law firm, but a bill for one of the investigators was sent to and paid by the county, not the law firm.
In court earlier this year, council members successfully defended their right to hire Nexsen Pruet and an investigative accountant for the process, but the judge ruled that they were able to do so because of votes the council had taken. There has been no vote to approve the investigators or discussion about them during public meetings.
Mike Pitts, the county’s attorney, said Nexsen Pruet (for which Pitts also works) was sent the bills and forwarded them to the county. He declined to comment further on the lawsuit.
Sending bills from expert witnesses and consultants to the client is typical practice, Nexsen Pruet attorney Grant Burns said. Burns has done more legal work for the investigation than any other attorney has; Pitts is not directly involved in the investigation.
Nexsen Pruet could have paid the investigator’s bill and charged the county, but the county never asked for that, Burns said. He said the amount of money would be the same no matter whom the bill was sent to.
The investigators, Tallon and Steve Smith, are former State Law Enforcement Division agents, Grant Burns said.
Only Tallon has billed the county or the law firm so far, officials said.
He submitted a 14,658 bill for a period between March 26 and April 9, according to billing records.
When the bill was submitted in early May, Council Chairman Eddie Moore authorized up to 40,000 for Tallon’s work.
The chairman said he did not make the decision to hire the investigators; Nexsen Pruet attorneys did. He signed the authorization because signing invoices is part of his job, he said.
The authorization is a “blanket purchase order for investigative services,” which Kern-Fuller said goes beyond what Nexsen Pruet was authorized by the council to do. She said exceeding Nexsen Pruet’s responsibilities would have required a vote by the county council.
Grant Burns said the law firm’s agreement with the county allows it to contract out services either to save money or get specific expertise.
“What we’re doing in this investigation is searching for the truth. Why anybody would want to stop that, I don’t know,” he said.
Kern-Fuller also is involved in other lawsuits and appeals against the county council’s actions involving the investigation but the plaintiffs in this case are different.
Tallon has expired P.I. license
Another part of Kern-Fuller’s lawsuit says that Tallon is not a licensed private investigator.
State records indicate that Tallon’s license expired in December and has not been renewed.
Burns acknowledged that Tallon does not have a P.I. license, but said he is acting as a consultant.
“For the work a consultant does, if it’s not private investigations you don’t have to be licensed,” he said.
According to state law, Tallon is severely limited in what he can do without a license.
Tallon cannot secure evidence for investigative committees, or for criminal, civil, board or administrative reasons, according to the South Carolina laws governing private investigators. The same laws say that without a license Tallon cannot investigate habits, integrity, credibility, actions, associations and more; he also cannot locate lost or stolen property.
Burns said he could not say specifically what Tallon is doing but that he has interviewing and white-collar crime expertise that the law firm needed.
The other investigator, Steve Smith, has a license. Smith is working for a different company than Tallon. Officials could not say what Smith is investigating.
County officials, including Interim County Administrator Rusty Burns and Moore, have referred to both Tallon and Smith as private investigators prior to Friday.
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