By Palmetto State Auditor Staff
Elloree, S.C. — After years of rumors and frustration in this small South Carolina town, a new civil lawsuit is finally pulling back the curtain. Filed in Orangeburg County, the complaint lays out a messy story of corruption, cover-ups, and retaliation at nearly every level of Elloree’s government. If you’ve lived here a while, none of this will shock you. But for anyone who cares about transparency and honest leadership, the details are hard to ignore.
The former police chief, David Martin, brought the suit and He’s naming names:
Starting with the Town of Elloree, Mayor Mike Fanning, councilman James Kelly Ulmer IV, and the previous chief, Shawn Murphree. Martin says they broke the South Carolina Whistleblower Act, dodged state open records laws, fired him for doing his job, and even tried to ruin his reputation.
At the heart of it, Martin claims he just tried to do what everyone expects a police chief to do, follow the law, answer public records requests, and clean up misconduct. Instead, the people in charge worked against him, and they fired him when he wouldn’t stop digging.
A Department in Disarray
Martin says he started as assistant chief in July 2023, then moved up after Murphree got arrested in a SLED investigation. Once Martin took the helm, he tried to get the department in order, checking the evidence room, double-checking finances, and finally responding to all those FOIA requests that had been piling up.
What he found, if you believe the lawsuit, is outrageous. Evidence gone missing, boxes with no labels, no logs of what came and went. Thousands paid to a body shop connected to town officials for work that never happened. Town money used for personal stuff, or just flat-out stolen. Racist policing. Department vehicles handed over to Murphree for next to nothing.
And it gets worse, shady deals with towing companies, employees faking timecards, and ten years’ worth of police records deleted on purpose. Maybe the wildest claim: someone tried to set fire to the evidence room right before an audit by SLED.
Martin says he brought every problem to Mayor Fanning. Instead of fixing anything, the mayor, according to Martin, warned other officials and pressured Martin to back off. He even asked Martin to block the SLED audit.
Fired in the Dark
Martin wouldn’t let it go. He told town leaders he was going to SLED and the State Ethics Commission. That’s when, the lawsuit claims, the retaliation got real. In July 2025, council held a special meeting without public notice, no agenda posted, no way for citizens to weigh in. Behind closed doors, they voted to fire Martin, and never gave him a reason.
Martin says that move broke state open meetings law and was meant to sweep him out of the picture quietly.
Later, the town tried to blame a failed drug test after a car accident. But Martin says he showed them paperwork proving his prescription medication explained the result, and they never looked into it further. Even more suspicious, Murphree had a similar accident and never had to take a drug test at all.
Why It Matters for Elloree
This isn’t just about a single firing. The lawsuit is about whether Elloree’s government works in the open, or whether a handful of insiders call the shots behind closed doors.
Martin’s complaint describes a town where requests for public records get ignored, meetings happen in secret, and anyone who asks too many questions gets pushed out. Some of the same officials named here were involved in another lawsuit Elloree just lost, one that cost taxpayers a bundle. Even after that, they’re still in power, with nothing stopping more damage to the town’s finances or reputation.
Martin argues this cycle, corruption, secrecy, and payback, is exactly why the courts need to step in now.
A Real Test for the Town
Martin wants his firing thrown out, the town forced to follow open records laws, and damages paid.
He’s asking the court to make sure Elloree actually protects whistleblowers and finally gives residents the transparency they’ve been demanding for years.
For a town already worn down by lawsuits and suspicion, the big question is simple: Does Elloree’s government serve the people, or just a small circle of officials looking out for themselves?
As this lawsuit moves ahead, people are watching. For a lot of folks in Elloree, it feels like the first real chance in ages to get some sunlight into a town hall that’s spent too long in the shadows.
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