Rick Quinn Jr.

Richard "Rick" Quinn Jr. is an American politician who served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1988 to 2004 and again from 2010 to 2017.

Rick Quinn
Member of the
South Carolina House of Representatives
from the 69th district
In office
2010–2017
Preceded byTed Pitts Jr.
Succeeded byChris Wooten
Majority Leader of the South Carolina House of Representatives
In office
1999–2004
Member of the
South Carolina House of Representatives
from the 71st district
In office
1988–2004
Preceded byH. Parker Evatt
Succeeded byNathan Ballentine
Personal details
Born
Richard Quinn Jr.

(1965-06-22) June 22, 1965
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Domestic partnerAmy McRae Benck
RelationsRichard Quinn (father)

Early life and education

Quinn was born in Columbia, South Carolina. His father, Richard Quinn Sr., is a former political consultant. Rick Jr. graduated from the University of South Carolina.[1]

Career

Quinn served as South Carolina House Majority Leader from 1999 to 2004.[2] He played a role in the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House in 2015.[3]

Conviction and resignation

On December 13, 2017, he resigned from the South Carolina legislature after pleading guilty to a charge of misconduct while in office.[4] The prosecutor, David Pascoe, had initially charged Quinn with two counts of misconduct, a charge of common law misconduct, and a charge of statutory law misconduct, but Quinn pleaded guilty to just one charge. Pascoe has been criticized for not taking Quinn to trial. Quinn was also charged with criminal conspiracy on October 28, 2017 but those chargers were dropped with the plea deal.[5][6]

In 2018, the judge overseeing Quinn's sentencing gave him one year in prison, but suspended the order, ignoring the plea deal's recommended prison time.[7] Instead, Quinn will have to do 500 hours of community service — “public service,” Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen said — and serve two years of probation after pleading guilty to one count of misdemeanor misconduct in office and was fined $1,000.[8]

Prosecutor David Pascoe appealed his own plea deal with Rick Quinn Jr. to the South Carolina Supreme Court arguing that the initial judge overseeing the case had shown bias.[9]

References
  1. "Rick Quinn". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2020-11-07.
  2. "South Carolina Legislature Online - Member Biography". www.scstatehouse.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
  3. Schreckinger, Ben. "How the South Carolina House got to 'yes'". POLITICO. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  4. "SC Lawmaker Rick Quinn Jr. Pleads Guilty to Misconduct". WLTX. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  5. "Rep. Rick Quinn Indicted for Misconduct, Suspended from Office". WLTX. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  6. "Powerful Consultant Quinn indicted, four others charged". The State. October 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-10-19.
  7. Smith, Glenn. "Former S.C. House Majority Leader Rick Quinn gets probation in misconduct case". Post and Courier. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  8. JOHN MONK (February 13, 2018). "Ex-Rep. Rick Quinn gets probation, community service in State House corruption case". thestate.com.
  9. Shain, Andy (October 2019). "Why Rick Quinn's Statehouse corruption case landed in SC Supreme Court". Post and Courier. Retrieved 2019-12-14.


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