SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - Newly obtained documents show dozens of complaints have been filed in recent years against a Summerville youth treatment facility, alleging there are bugs, abuse, dangerously low staffing levels, violent fights and blood and vomit smeared throughout the building.

Mary Wilcox’s grandson spent time in that facility, Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health, earlier this year.

“Terror” is how she describes her feelings about the residential facility, which is for children and teens ages 7-18 with emotional and behavioral issues.

Her 13-year-old grandson was admitted to the youth residential treatment facility earlier this year.

For weeks, he stayed locked behind the doors of the facility; for weeks he recounted the horror and violence to his grandmother; and for weeks, Wilcox said she fought to get him out.

“[He] was abused in ways that most parents would say would be the worst thing to happen to their child,” Wilcox says.

During phone calls with his grandmother and an in-person visit, he detailed vicious fights, sexual assaults and abuse.

“He was struggling to deal with what was going on, and he attempted to escape,” Wilcox said. “He was handled by a staff member who slammed his head into a chain link fence causing a gash, causing blood to drop down his face.”

Her grandson’s story is not the first troubling one that has been shared. Nearly 200 pages of documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request for complaints against the facility in the past few years detail allegations of what some say erupts in the hallways and common areas and what hides, tucked away in patients’ rooms.

The dozens of complaints filed describe alleged bug infestations, inadequate staffing, filthy conditions, overmedicating and a prison-like environment.

One complaint says a staff member attacked a patient.

“On the video, it was observed that a staff member placing [redacted] into a choke hold and then it is observed on camera that same staff member punching [redacted] six times once [redacted] is taken down to the ground,” the complaint states.

Another states a patient was so heavily medicated they fainted. In a different complaint, an employee is accused of grabbing a patient by the shirt, pulling them down and kneeing them in the face.

“It does not surprise me at all,” Wilcox says. “My grandson communicated similar conditions to me. It is very alarming that this happened to my grandson; it’s alarming that children are in the facility still.”

One complaint alleges the facility frequently only has one nurse on duty with 60 patients and was so short-staffed they couldn’t provide proper treatment.

Another states there have been “numerous human rights violations” and claims patients are refused medical treatment and prescriptions.

“Supervisors explicitly tell staff to ‘treat them like prisoners because they are here for punishment’ rather than treating the patients with compassion as they go through treatment,” the complaint states.

Another complaint describes cockroaches and ants crawling around and blood and vomit smeared inside.

“[Palmetto Summerville] should be investigated,” Wilcox says. “They need to be checked out. They need to be monitored, and they need to be held accountable.”

The State Department of Health and Environmental Control is the agency responsible for investigating complaints against health facilities like Palmetto Summerville. It can also penalize them.

“When there is noncompliance with the licensing standards, the facility must submit an acceptable written plan of correction to DHEC that must be signed by the administrator and returned by the date specified on the report of inspection/investigation,” an email from DHEC states. “When DHEC determines that a facility is in violation of any statutory provision, rule, or regulation relating to the operation or maintenance of such facility, DHEC, upon proper notice to the licensee, may impose a monetary penalty, and deny, suspend, or revoke licenses.”

Last month, DHEC investigated two complaints against Palmetto Summerville, but no violations were cited, according to officials. In August, however, the facility was fined $19,000 for nine violations.

“DHEC executed a consent order with the facility in August after it was determined that it was appropriate to impose a civil monetary penalty for violations of Regulation 61-103,” the email from DHEC states.

Some of those violations, documents show, include failing to have a registered nurse immediately accessible by phone and available within 30 minutes, failing to notify DHEC of a serious accident or incident within 24 hours, failing to make sure residents were free from harm and failing to make sure medications were available for administration.

“[Patients] are further traumatized,” Wilcox says. “They are further placed into a downward spiral by being in these facilities.”

That downward spiral and that trauma, she says, prevent any effective treatment for the children who spend time at Palmetto Summerville and similar facilities.

Some studies show that could be right.

One study shows there’s not enough research to know if the interventions — therapy, activities and treatments — inside these facilities are effective or an effective use of money.

“We also don’t know a lot about what the, what treatments they’re actually getting because we don’t necessarily see the day-to-day life of these kids in these facilities,” Roderick Rose, an associate professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore and researcher in the study, says.

A common trend in the facilities: Medication. One study shows about 90 percent of stays at facilities analyzed included an antipsychotic medication, even though only 3 percent of patients were diagnosed with a psychotic disorder.

“You also see just a lot of medicating children,” Rose says.

For her grandson, Wilcox believes the best treatment has been being back home. He’s in school and playing basketball and is doing better. The trauma from the facility still lingers, however, and Wilcox says she prays other children can get the help they need outside of the gates of Palmetto Summerville.

“I am so very grateful that he is one child that escaped being in the situation he was in long,” she says. “Other children, as well, to be rescued, which is a most appropriate word. They need to be rescued from these facilities.”

Norman Bradley, the director of risk management and performance improvement for Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health released this statement:

Due to HIPAA patient privacy laws, we cannot offer comment on specific patients or their care.

Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health takes all allegations of abuse seriously and completes full investigations as warranted. Any and all allegations required to be reported to the Department of Health and Environmental Control have been done, and necessary action plans have been implemented to address the issues raised. Recent site visits by DHEC have been positive and have resulted in no findings.

Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health is a residential treatment facility for girls and boys ages 7 to 18, in need of a highly structured, therapeutic environment. Our patient satisfaction scores reflect the care that is delivered by our compassionate and dedicated team.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

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Jason Tucker reports that business is booming at the boîte known as La Cuisine du Chevalier, or La Chev, by the locals. The 40-seat restaurant, which translates to “the knight’s kitchen,” garnered rave reviews by online contributors when it opened in November at the former soup restaurant called Ladles in the Shoppes of Summerville.

It only recently held a grand opening celebration.

Tucker, who has lived in Summerville for the past 16 years, is no stranger to the restaurant business.

“My background is extremely diverse and it started back when I was 15-years’ old scooping ice cream in Central Pennsylvania,” he said.

Related content: Charleston rooftop bar, restaurant to renovate, rebrand

Over the years, Tucker has worked in numerous restaurants, from chains like Buffalo Wild Wings, Cracker Barrel and the Hilton, to groups like Charleston Hospitality and more. After bartending his way through college in Virginia, the hard-working transplant accepted a management position from his employer, which took him to Summerville, where he has been ever since.

The father of two boys is also the operating partner at Wine & Tapas in Summerville and was buoyed by the popularity of the business. This inspired him to open a new restaurant, this time with a French flair.

“They call the area the French Quarter, but it lacked a French-themed restaurant, which never made sense to me, especially with the growth we are seeing in this area,” he said.

Tucker said that La Chev was designed to evoke the feeling of walking down the Champs-Élysées.

“It’s a cute café that’s quaint and all about the food and wine,” he said.

It doesn’t hurt that Tucker worked in the wine distribution business and is well-versed on what’s exceptional. He said that his goal is to bring people in by rivaling the quality that a customer would get in downtown Charleston.

“It’s all about the ingredients and there’s a lot of precision and thought that goes into each of our dishes,” he said, adding that chef de cuisine Jonathan DuPriest, who grew up in Knightsville, is Johnson and Wales-trained.

When it comes to dishes, Tucker said that the most popular lunch items that they serve are the French Dip and the shrimp and grits.

“A lot of people judge the quality of the restaurant by their shrimp and grits,” he said.

As for dinner, Tucker offers quite a few specials, ranging from steak dishes, to surf and turf, scallops, crabcakes, and salmon.

“Everyone says that it’s the best salmon served in the Atlantic Coastal area,” Tucker said.

For now, La Chev is taking reservations, except for the bar and outside area, so last-minute plans to dine can be accommodated if guests don’t mind sitting in either area.

Tucker also recently announced that they will be open on Sundays for brunch.

“We’re currently working on the menu which we will implement sometime around the end of July,” he said.

Kurry Seymour was a Ladles customer who was wowed by his first visit.

“This place brings a refreshing vibe to the Knightsville area and I am impressed by the décor, which was converted into a very fine, but very cozy dining experience,” he said.

Reviews like this are music to Tucker’s ears.

“I never thought I’d be in a situation where I’d be running two separate restaurants, but I love the feeling one gets when someone is happy with an experience. Making moments special is the best feeling in the world and having the opportunity to have someone really love what you’re doing, well, it doesn’t get any better than that,” he said, with a smile.

Stefanie Kalina-Metzger is a contributing writer for SC Biz News.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/AP) - Viewers in the Lowcountry are sharing photos of Monday’s solar eclipse, an event that isn’t expected to happen again for 21 years.

Send your photos of the solar eclipse by clicking the blue “+ Add Media” button:

Monday’s eclipse over the Lowcountry was not as dramatic as a similar eclipse back in 2017 because the Lowcountry was not within the “path of totality,” the strip stretching across North America from Mexico to Canada where spectators will be able to see the moon aligned nearly perfectly in front of the sun.

“You wouldn’t even know it happened unless we were to tell you this was going on unless you put on these glasses are able to see it yourself,” Sovine said.

The Lowcountry peaked at about 70% of the sun being blocked by the moon, but because the sun is so bright, that still won’t be enough to cause a huge difference in how bright the sky looks.

People who were in the eclipse’s path saw a twilight for nearly four-and-a-half minutes, nearly twice as long as the 2017 eclipse because the moon is closer to the earth this time around.

Live 5 First Alert Meteorologist Joey Sovine stressed the importance of using safe eye protection during the partial eclipse.

“It’s never safe to look at the sun, whether it’s a day where there’s a solar eclipse or not,” he said. Before relying on any eclipse glasses, spectators should make sure a reputable store sold them and that the product isn’t a knockoff.

Doctors warned of the potential for permanent eye damage from looking at the sun without proper protection and NASA warned people not to take photos of the eclipse with their phones because that could cause permanent damage to the camera.

The peak of the eclipse over the Lowcountry came at about 3 p.m. or so.

Astronomers said the eclipse was expected to end by about 4:25 p.m. when sunlight would be back in full force.

An estimated 44 million people live within the track, with a couple hundred million more within 200 miles.

Experts from NASA and scores of universities are posted along the route, poised to launch research rockets and weather balloons, and conduct experiments. The International Space Station’s seven astronauts also will be on the lookout, 270 miles up.

It will be another 21 years before the United States sees another total solar eclipse on this scale.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

A new lawsuit accuses South Carolina state representative and practicing lawyer Marvin Pendarvis of faking a client’s signature in order to secure a settlement for a amount far smaller than was promised.

When the alleged duplicity was discovered, Pendarvis used funds from his law firm’s trust account to try to pay off his client, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Charleston by attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter on behalf of Adrian Lewis, Pendarvis’ former client. It accuses Pendarvis of legal malpractice and of committing “unfair and deceptive practices” under the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act.

“Nothing fuels us more than when an attorney betrays the attorney-client relationship and exploits a client,” Bland said at a news conference Thursday. He accused Pendarvis of heaping stigma on the legal profession in South Carolina. In addition to the lawsuit, the attorneys had filed complaints against Pendarvis with the state ethics commission and the South Carolina Bar Association.

Bland and Richter were prominent players in the Alex Murdaugh saga, representing a number of victims of the disbarred lawyer’s financial crimes. Murdaugh also was convicted of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul.

Reached Thursday, Pendarvis told The State Media Co. that he did not have a comment as he had not read the full lawsuit and only found out about it Thursday morning.

“All of this has caught me off guard, “ said Pendarvis, D-Charleston. The four-term state representative has a law practice, Pendarvis Law LLC, in North Charleston.

Lewis originally hired Pendarvis in 2021 to represent him in a lawsuit against the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Department after Lewis was “unlawfully arrested” by sheriff’s deputies. Lewis said that the mother of his then 6-year-old daughter falsely told deputies that she had an order of protection against him, leading to his arrest after he took his daughter to the beach at Isle of Palms, according to the lawsuit.

When Pendarvis took the case, he told Lewis that he believed it would be worth “up to $325,000,” according to the lawsuit. In April 2023, efforts at mediation failed and the case was scheduled for trial that November. But the trial never went ahead.

Confused, short of money, facing foreclosure and unemployed after his arrest, Lewis kept reaching out to Pendarvis, trying to work out when the trial might be, the lawsuit says.

But the lawsuit alleges that “Pendarvis largely ghosted Adrian, did not return his calls or answer his inquiries... and the few times he did reply to Adrian’s inquiries, Pendarvis gave Adrian misleading information about the status of his case.”

That December, Pendarvis sent Lewis two checks, one for $5,000 and another for $1,666.67, drawn from his IOLTA account — a type of trust account attorneys use to hold client funds. The checks were simply marked “disbursement,”and while Pendarvis allegedly did not tell Lewis what the checks were for, he promised Lewis that he “had a lot more money coming.”

“In hindsight, it now appears that the two checks Pendarvis issued to Adrian totaling $6,666.67 were written to create the appearance that Adrian had been paid 66% of the gross settlement of $10,000.00 per his fee agreement,” Lewis’ attorneys wrote in the complaint.

But the deception fell apart when Lewis fired Pendarvis and reached out to the attorney representing the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Department about his case, the lawsuit said. The sheriff’s department’s attorney told him that Pendarvis had settled the case he once allegedly estimated at up to $325,000 for just $10,000.

The release form authorizing the settlement allegedly includes a forgery of Lewis’ signature, along with witness signatures from Pendarvis and another individual, the lawsuit said. A Notary Public who shares an office with Pendarvis affirmed that she had witnessed the signature, according to the lawsuit.

When Lewis discovered this, he confront Pendarvis. Over text, Pendarvis asked “how much you need the check for?” Asking Lewis to call him, Pendarvis wrote in a series of texts “you’re not telling me what you need,” “I’ve always come thru for you on anything you need man.” “Let’s handle this s---. No need to try and hurt me man. I can help you.”

In later texts, the lawyer appeared to admit that something had gone wrong.

“That shouldn’t have happened. I was holding out for more more,” Penvardis wrote in a text. “We’ll make this right and you’ll get your money and some. Even if I gotta do it myself.”

On April 2, Pendarvis allegedly showed up at Lewis’ house at 8:30 a.m. with a “black bag” that he said contained $50,000 in cash. Pendarvis allegedly said that he could give Lewis another $25,000 and could write a check to “pay for your mortgage” if Adrian would “not sue Pendarvis, according to the lawsuit.

“You can’t pay a client in cash. There has to be a trail, and you don’t pay a client from your operating account or from any other checking account. The client gets their money from a trust account,” Bland said.

But just two days later, Pendarvis gave Lewis another check drawn from his IOLTA account and post-dated to April 9, this one in the amount of $15,000.

“It appears that Mr. Pendarvis attempted to use other people’s money to pacify Mr. Lewis,” Bland said. “It’s troubling, that’s all I can say.”

Pendarvis took office in 2017 after winning a special election in District 113 in Charleston. He took office just three years after graduating from University of South Carolina Law School in 2014. He received his undergraduate degree from USC in 2011.

He is currently unopposed in this year’s election.

This story was originally published April 11, 2024, 2:01 PM.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - A Summerville family says they moved out of their rented apartment at the recommendation of a doctor after months of seeing mold across the unit.

Breanna McCalla says her family moved to Summerville in the fall, but when they signed their lease at the Latitude at Wescott, they had no idea they would be moving again in less than six months.

“I think, a week after moving in that we noticed the first amount of mold up on the vents, which was the first thing that we noticed,” McCalla says.

She provided a screenshot of an email sent in October, alerting property managers about the mold, and asking that it be checked out and addressed. But McCalla says not only did nothing seem to get fixed, it instead got worse.

“I also have also lost multiple sentimental things that I can’t get back. I had a bag full of all my kids’ baby blankets that was covered in mold. You know, like baby items and clothing and things that you can’t replace,” McCalla says.

Staff at the Latitude at Wescott did not comment on the situation despite three attempts to ask if they were aware of the issue and, if so, whether any effort was made to address it.

Mary Templeton, a fellow in an Equal Justice Housing Works Program, specializes in renter cases at Charleston Pro Bono. She says tenants do have rights under South Carolina law.

“A lot of people don’t know their rights because South Carolina landlord-tenant law is not necessarily intuitive,” Templeton says. “So a big thing that I think that all tenants should know in South Carolina is just to make sure to document any issues you’re having. The more evidence you have of a problem, the easier it is to get it resolved, even if it does require court action.”

Parts of the South Carolina Residential Landlord and Tenant Act say landlords must “comply with the requirements of applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety” and “make all repairs and do whatever is reasonably necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition.”

“I was constantly stressed about it with the kids, mainly with the mold. I mean, the other things we cleaned, and you know, it’s fine, but the mold, I know how serious mold is,” McCalla says.

She provided emails with management through December and January documenting continued mold appearances on vents and windows. She says the last straw for their family was when her daughter developed a persistent cough and her other two children also seemed to struggle with breathing.

“We’re doing doctors and taking antibiotics. She wasn’t testing for anything and we were starting to put the pieces together,” McCalla says.

On Feb. 10 at a follow-up doctor appointment, the provider made a note on McCalla’s daughter’s visit notes. It states, “Seek care at COEM (Center for Occupation & Environmental Medicine) for mold exposure along with treatment for cough symptoms.”

“The first thing she said was immediately you need to get out the only way you’re going to start feeling better and you know healing from this is removing yourself from the mold,” McCalla says.

Templeton says Charleston Pro Bono gets at least weekly if not daily requests for help with tenant issues. She says there are specific timelines for when certain types of issues should be fixed, and a professional can walk someone through their rights if they have the documentation.

“The more evidence you have of a problem, the easier it is to get it resolved, even if it does require court action,” Templeton says. “You always have to put a repair request for those things in writing. Landlords don’t have a duty to fix things unless they’ve received a written notice about the repairs that need to be made.”

While they are not in the habit of taking on mold cases because of the cost, she says documenting everything does a lot if you want to build a case to break your lease. Templeton says a mold case can be hard to prove but not impossible if people have the proof.

“With mold cases, if someone is looking into some sort of damages where you know, they think they’ve been injured because of the mold, their children are sick things of that nature…It’s very hard for legal aid providers to take on those cases just because we don’t have the sort of capital needed to kind of front the bill for those sorts of lawsuits,” Templeton says. “Typically, in those sorts of lawsuits. It’s my understanding that expert witnesses are needed, you know, who have to be paid. You get the property tested by maybe environmental organizations, things like that to see what the risk level is.”

McCalla, when breaking her lease, checked a box claiming to break through “no fault” not wanting to pay because of the mold maintenance issues. She says they have been in touch with a potential lawyer and are planning to get the family tested for mold levels at COEM.

“I know that I did as much as I could have I also wish I would have done more like I wish I would have been like in their face telling them like this is not okay,” McCalla says.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.