Richard Quinn Jr. is an American politician who served as a member of the

South Carolina House of Representatives The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly. It consists of 124 representatives elected to two-year terms at the same time as U.S. congressional elections. Unlike many legislatures, seatin ...

from 1988 to 2004 and again from 2010 to 2017.

Early life and education

Quinn was born in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-mo ...

. His father, Richard Quinn Sr., is a former political consultant. Rick Jr. graduated from the

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

Career

Quinn served as South Carolina House Majority Leader from 1999 to 2004. He played a role in the removal of the

Confederate flag The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...

from the

South Carolina State House The South Carolina State House is the building housing the government of the U.S. state of South Carolina, which includes the South Carolina General Assembly and the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina. Located in ...

in 2015.

Conviction and resignation

On December 13, 2017, during the South Carolina Statehouse corruption investigation, he resigned from the South Carolina legislature after pleading guilty to a charge of misconduct while in office. 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. 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. 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. Prosecutor David Pascoe appealed his own plea deal with Rick Quinn Jr. to the

South Carolina Supreme Court The Supreme Court of South Carolina is the highest court in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The court is composed of a chief justice and four associate justices.

arguing that the initial judge overseeing the case had shown bias.

References

External links

* , - Living people 1965 births {{SouthCarolina-politician-stub South Carolina politicians convicted of crimes 21st-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly 20th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly