Ex-deputy avoids prison sentence over sexual contact with students

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COLUMBIA — A former sheriff’s deputy at a high school — who also was a record-breaking basketball player two decades ago at the University of South Carolina — has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to having sexual relationships with two students.

While Richland County ex-deputy Jamel Bradley avoided prison time Tuesday, the judge required him to register as a sex offender. Prosecutors had only asked that he get sex offender counseling, according to media reports.

Bradley, 45, was a deputy from 2007 to 2019 and spent a decade as a school police officer at Spring Valley High School in Columbia until he was fired over tampering with an internal investigation. The criminal charges came later.

Bradley also played basketball at USC from 1998 to 2002. He was the team’s leading scorer as a junior and senior and still owns the Gamecocks record with 264 3-pointers.

Bradley pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct and sexual battery with a student. He faced up to 15 years in prison, but Bradley’s lawyer and prosecutors agreed to ask the judge for probation and to keep him off the sex offender registry.

Circuit Judge Daniel Coble did sentence Bradley to five years in prison, but he won’t have to serve that time if he successfully completes three years of probation.

Prosecutors said in one case Bradley repeatedly went to a teen student’s home, eventually taking her to a dead-end street and kissing her and making other unwanted advances. He took her home when she told him to stop.

In the other case, a student said she agreed to a sexual relationship with Bradley that included an encounter in his patrol car in a shopping center parking lot.

Under South Carolina law, students cannot consent to sexual activity with someone who has authority over them such as a teacher or law-enforcement officer.

A lawyer for one of the victims said she was fine with Bradley avoiding prison because he took responsibility and has young children.

In court, Bradley said he sincerely apologized to everyone affected by his crimes, including his parents and wife.

“I am deeply sorry you had to endure this, and I am also deeply sorry to all the individuals I disappointed and let down. My hope is that this hearing will bring a sense of closure and allow us all to move forward,” Bradley said.

After the hearing. Bradley’s attorney said he plans to ask Coble to reconsider his decision to put Bradley on the sexual offender registry.

Offenders have to register for life unless they successfully petition a judge to be removed. They can’t have any contact with someone under age 18 outside of their immediate family. They can’t live within 1,000 feet of a school, day care. shopping mall or other areas where children gather and must notify probation agents of their address and any night they don’t spend at home.

“That is punishing his children more than anybody. He’s not going to take his kids to ball games anymore. He’s not going to be able to go and have fun with them at social events,” attorney Gill Bell told The State newspaper.

Bell said he thought the judge’s decision was too harsh and based on Bradley’s notoriety — including a Washington Post report detailing his case Monday — instead of a psychiatric evaluation that he was unlikely to commit another sex offense.

The sheriff who recruited Bradley to become a deputy wasn’t in the courtroom Tuesday, but in a statement later said Bradley betrayed his trust and the trust of the community and he thinks deserved prison time.

“I am grateful that he finally accepted responsibility for his repulsive actions. I apologize to the victims, their families, and our community and I will do everything in my power to ensure this never happens again,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.