CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) – On this Friday, Shane Stuart, former Chester County Supervisor pleading guilty to 4 different charges including trafficking meth.
A judge sentenced him to 7 years behind bars.
In 2020, a Grand State Jury indicated Stuart, saying he distributed and trafficked meth out of a county vehicle and even schemed to steal car parts out of county vehicles to sell them.
Community members in Chester County voted Shane Stuart in for 2 terms to represent them as county supervisor beginning in 2015.
Today, Stuart was taken out of the courthouse in handcuffs, pleading guilty in what law enforcement officials called a significant drug trafficking operation that state leaders say was a slap in the face to Chester county residents.
Stuart pleaded guilty to distributing and trafficking Meth, criminal conspiracy and misconduct in office.
Stuart was just one of several suspects in this operation.
According to the State Grand Jury Stuart met a man by the name of Ace Hembree online and began to have an intimate relationship with him.
Leaders say Stuart started using Meth and then eventually began to help Hembree traffic meth and began trafficking himself.
“The reason why they used the county vehicle is obvious. What law enforcement officer is going to stop the county supervisor in his county vehicle. What of law enforcement officer is going to believe that the county supervisor was trafficking meth in his county vehicle but that is what Mr. Stuart was doing”, says Creighton Waters, Chief Attorney, State Grand Jury.
After months of investigating, Stuart was arrested and charged in September 2020.
Because of Stuart’s cooperation with the investigation, he was sentenced to 7 years just on the distribution charge on this Friday.
Stuart will be sentenced by the judge at a later date on the remaining 3 charges after the investigations of the 5 codefendants in the case wrap up.
The time he could spend behind bars depends on Stuart’s cooperation in the case.
He could face as much as 25 years in prison.
Waters says this investigation started with an investigation of the corruption of Chester County as a whole, including the investigation of former sheriff Alex Underwood.
