South Carolina’s top judge is severely restricting lower-court judges from running their own programs that allow some offenders to clear their arrest records.

In a written order, Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal said state law allows only solicitors to run “pretrial intervention” programs.

Solicitors must approve any programs operated by judges, the order said. “These programs may or may not be OK, but they’re not OK if they’re made independently of the solicitor,” Toal said Tuesday.

Toal said prosecutors told her they were concerned that magistrate or municipal judges are allowing charges to be dropped against defendants who normally would not be accepted into solicitor-run diversion programs.

“It’s been a real problem around the state over the last several years,” Richland County prosecutor Barney Giese, president of the S.C. Solicitors Association, said Tuesday.

But Spartanburg County magistrate Edward Overcash, president of the statewide Association of Summary Court Judges, which represents about 600 municipal and magistrate judges, said he knew of only “a few situations around the state.”

Some judges might have created their own diversion programs as “a way of moving cases without trial,” Overcash said.

Pretrial intervention programs run by solicitors generally are geared toward first-time offenders who have committed relatively minor crimes.

Under those programs, prosecutors drop charges if defendants do certain things, such as complete counseling, pay restitution to victims or perform community service. After charges are dropped, defendants can have their arrest records cleared.

Defendants who are not eligible for pretrial intervention programs are those charged with violent crimes, DUI offenses, certain wildlife violations or traffic offenses that carry no jail time.

About 10,700 offenders statewide apply annually for the solicitor-run programs, according to the state Prosecution Coordination Commission. Of those, about 9,300 are accepted, and about 7,500 complete the programs, records show.

People accused of underage drinking and shoplifting are typical defendants in those programs, said William Bilton, the commission’s executive director.

About half of the charges handled through the programs carry maximum 30-day jail sentences, Bilton said. The other half are more serious circuit court-level crimes, such as second-degree burglary, he said.

Giese said a big concern prosecutors have with diversion programs or policies by magistrates or municipal judges is that defendants might not get the help they need. For example, a judge might order offenders to do community service without requiring them to complete alcohol or drug counseling, he said.

Giese said a lack of record keeping in diversion programs that are not run by solicitors might allow some defendants to participate in those programs in more than one county. State law allows a defendant to participate in a diversion program only one time, no matter where they are charged.

Toal said her order should not affect most defendants who have completed judge-run programs.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com.