Comments on Settlement in Teens Death Gets Judge Suspended

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BY SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina Supreme Court has suspended a judge who wrote on his Facebook page that a family’s $2 million settlement after an officer fatally shot their son was “all about the money.”

Justices unanimously accepted a six-month suspension for Oconee County Probate Judge Kenneth Johns. But Wednesday’s filing is retroactive to Johns’ interim suspension, meaning his disciplinary period ended last month.

Attorney Eric Bland called Johns’ actions a “stain on the justice system.” Bland represents the family of 19-year-old Zachary Hammond, who was shot to death in July 2015 as he tried to drive away during a drug sting in a fast-food restaurant parking lot in Seneca.

Read more here in The Herald.