McKown placed himself on paid administrative leave after he and his girlfriend were charged with drug offenses last week. McKown faces three charges, including cocaine possession and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. If he is indicted by a grand jury in coming months, he could be suspended from office without pay.

Meanwhile, however, it has come to light that McKown has been paid on a regular basis by firms that do business with his office. For example, both McKown and his top assistant, Deputy Coroner David Chambers, each were being paid $600 a month from York Pathology Associates, a company that receives hundreds of thousands of county dollars each year to perform autopsies at the coroner's request.

Chambers said it was no secret that he and McKown have been paid to do off-the-clock work for the company on cases not related to the coroner's office. But that arrangement was not listed on economic interest forms McKown is required to file annually with the State Ethics Commission.

Neither was a deal with Carolina Mortuary Transportation Service, another company that does business with the county. McKown has been paid nearly $7,000 from the company over the past six years for help in embalming bodies.

McKown, in fact, enthusiastically endorsed the company in letters to the County Council, asking members to hire Carolina Mortuary to transport bodies for his office. The county approved such a contract in 2005. McKown last embalmed a body for the company in December, eight months after the contract was approved.

Herbert Hayden Jr., executive director of the State Ethics Commission, said McKown's arrangement with Carolina Mortuary presents a conflict of interest because McKown helped influence a decision by the county that involved a company he worked for.

"If he had called us up and said, 'Can I do this?' we would have told him, 'Absolutely no," Hayden said this week.

This arrangement, like the one with York Pathology, was not listed on the annual statement of economic interests for the past four years, which The Herald has reviewed.

Anyone who violates state ethics laws can be fined up to $2,000 per offense, and the case can be referred to the S.C. attorney general for possible criminal prosecution. We are not in a position to judge whether McKown has violated the law. Nevertheless, he has been guilty of a major conflict of interest, breach of the public trust and trampling of state ethics regulations.

McKown should quit voluntarily before he is forced to do so. For him to continue drawing a public salary only adds injury to insult.

IN SUMMARY
County coroner's conflicts of interest appear to violate a variety of state ethics rules.