Coroner, girlfriend booked in drug case

Pair surrender early; solicitor to ask state office to handle case

NICHOLE MONROE BELL AND DAN HUNTLEY

nbell@charlotteobserver.com | dhuntley@charlotteobserver.com

Doug McKown above, Erin Jenkins, below

WCNC | Video from the scene

YORK, S.C. - York County Coroner Doug McKown turned himself in to authorities Wednesday and was booked into the county jail on charges of possession and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

McKown, 37, and his girlfriend, Erin Jenkins, 27, arrived at the Moss Justice Center shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday. McKown was released on $8,000 bond, Jenkins on $14,000 bond. Law enforcement officials had said they expected the couple to turn themselves in today, but McKown and Jenkins cut short their trip to Myrtle Beach.

McKown declined to comment. His lawyer, Jack Swerling, said McKown was upset at being arrested, and planned to prove his innocence.

Jenkins and lawyer Jim Morton also declined comment as she left.

McKown and Jenkins are accused of conspiring to sell three grams of cocaine at a York convenience store May 4. The couple is also accused of having cocaine on the dresser at the home they share in Clover, S.C., when it was searched Saturday.

York County Solicitor Tommy Pope said Wednesday that he plans to turn the cases over to the S.C. Attorney General's Office for prosecution. Pope has been a supporter of McKown, and as the county's lead prosecutor, has worked with McKown for more than a decade.

The county coroner is an elected official who oversees the investigation of unnatural deaths. McKown has been coroner since 1994.

"Anybody who knows me knows I'd prosecute my own daddy if I had to," said Pope, who like McKown was elected as a Republican.

"But for those who don't know me, this is so the public can have a comfort level of knowing there's no inside deal because he is an elected official, or a Republican or anything else."

Mark Plowden, a spokesman for the attorney general, said that office could use its own prosecutors or send the case to a similar-sized judicial circuit.

McKown has placed himself on paid leave. If a grand jury indicts him, the governor's legal counsel will recommend he be suspended without pay, said Joel Sawyer, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford.

The governor would then appoint someone to McKown's position temporarily. If McKown were found not guilty, he would be reinstated. Sawyer said that if McKown were found guilty, he most likely would be removed from office.