Personal Injury Attorneyin Orangeburg, SC.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. —

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is investigating an unlicensed facility.

(Video above: Evening headlines from WYFF News 4)

Officials say on Thursday, DHEC, along with other state and local agencies, began an investigation on three alleged unlicensed community residential care facilities in Orangeburg.

According to officials, DHEC staff cited one facility for operating without a license, which is a violation of state statutes and regulations.

During the investigation, DHEC discovered that staff at the unlicensed facility were offering room and board and provided personal care for residents, officials say.

According to officials, investigators also found that residents were locked in rooms with no way of exiting without assistance. According to DHEC, that poses a risk in the event of a fire or medical emergency.

DHEC says authorities were able to place the residents of the unlicensed facility into emergency protective custody, and they have since been relocated to appropriate facilities to ensure their safety.

Based on the investigations of the other two facilities, DHEC staff did not find that they were being operated as community residential care facilities, according to officials.

DHEC says individuals living at those facilities were not receiving assistance with day-to-day living, so officials considered these facilities to be apartments.

Officials say the unlicensed facility submitted a plan of correction that was accepted by DHEC’s Bureau of Health Facilities Licensing.

“It is the responsibility of long-term care facilities to operate in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, regulations and permits,” said DHEC’s Director of Health Care Quality, Gwen Thompson. “Our ultimate goal is for all of our state’s long-term care facilities to operate in accordance with these laws and regulations, which exist to establish safe standards for protecting the health of the residents they care for, as well as their staff. If a facility creates a dangerous living condition, we will take immediate and decisive action to protect residents, who are always our top priority.”

“I am deeply disturbed by the deplorable conditions in which we found the victims involved in these heinous crimes against humanity,” said Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Chief Charles Austin, Sr. “I commend Sergeant Deloris Edmunds and the team that worked with her to investigate and uncover the atrocities that were committed against some of our vulnerable citizens whose families entrusted the personal care of their loved ones to the suspects and their trust was betrayed.”

ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WACH) — Investigators with the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety (ODPS) say five vulnerable adults ranging in age from 52 to 99 were in imminent danger when they were found in heavily soiled undergarments in the back of a Broughton Street barbershop.

During the December 27 investigation, officials say they were told that a man inside a closet room area ate himself to death and passed away on Christmas Eve, according to the incident report.

ODPS officials say bond was set a $30,000 for 40-year-old Shaneima Montgomery of Saint George on January 5 in connection to the crimes.

The Lemon Drive woman was arrested on January 4 and is charged with five counts of neglect and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.

Montgomery was allegedly receiving varying payment amounts for the victims' care at the Broughton Street and a location on Lovell Street.

According to an incident report, Montgomery is the owner of Blue Ink Sign Inc (487 Broughton Street) and is registered with the South Carolina Secretary of State as a nonprofit.

The use of the business is listed as administrative management and general management consulting services.

ODPS investigators were conducting a follow up from December 19 when they say the victims were found.

At the time of the initial visit, investigators say they saw a customer get a haircut and a Business and Professional License to Jerry's Professional Barber (967 Russell St., 29115) on the wall.

According to the incident report the victims were identified as a 99-year-old Black female, a 52-year-old Black female, an 80-year-old white male, 63-year-old white male, 73-year-old white male.

The door of one of the victims was locked from the outside preventing them to leave the room and a box of used needles were found on the floor of another victim.

The incident reports also states:

These are just some of the reasons this building is deemed unsafe for the vulnerable adults; however, there are many more, the incident report states.

All the victims were taken to MUSC Health Orangeburg for treatment.

The Orangeburg Department of Public Safety is still investigating the case.

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ORANGEBURG, S.C. (WIS) - An Orangeburg man was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison after assaulting a postal worker he had a prior relationship with.

According to evidence presented in court, on March 20, 2023, the U.S. Postal Mail worker arrived at a daycare facility to deliver mail but tried escaping once Gregory Ellison, 42, arrived. Ellison then caught her and assaulted her inside a daycare facility where children and workers were present.

Officials said Ellison pinned her against the mail truck, ripped out her earring, and took her cell phone after the carrier convinced Ellison to talk outside.

The mail carrier then reportedly managed to distract Ellison, jump into her mail truck and drive away. However, Ellison then caught up to the truck, punched the carrier in the head and pulled her out of the moving vehicle by her hair causing her to land on dirt and concrete. The truck then rolled and crashed into a ditch.

Investigators discovered Ellison previously visited the carrier’s place of employment multiple times in the weeks leading up to the assault and sent her multiple messages on social media threatening to kill her with a firearm.

The South Carolina Department of Justice said Ellison, who has prior convictions for domestic violence in the third degree and harassment in the second degree, also sent messages to two other individuals asking for a firearm before the assault.

“While this incident stemmed from domestic violence, this sentencing clearly illustrates that individuals who endanger the safety and wellbeing of USPS workers will be held accountable for their actions,” said Tommy D. Coke, Inspector-in-Charge of the Atlanta Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, and the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Ellison was sentenced by United States District Judge Sherri A. Lydon to 40 months imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision.

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These Covid tracking pages are no longer being updated. Get the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control, or find archived data from The Times’s three year reporting effort here.

Daily Covid-19 admissions in the Orangeburg County area

About the data

Data is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitalization data is a daily average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with Orangeburg County, an area which may be larger than Orangeburg County itself.

The number of daily hospital admissions shows how many patients were admitted to hospitals for Covid and is one of the most reliably reported indicators of Covid’s impact on a community.

Total population

Ages 65 and up

Total population

Ages 65 and up

An updated vaccine is recommended for adults and most children. Statewide, 7% of vaccinations did not specify a home county.

Nearby hospitals

Share of I.C.U. beds occupied

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: The hospitals map shows the average I.C.U. occupancy at nearby hospitals in the most recent week with data reported. The data is self-reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by individual hospitals. It excludes counts from hospitals operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service. Numbers for hospitalized patients are based on inpatient beds and include I.C.U. beds. Hospitalized Covid-19 patients include both confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023.

How trends have changed in Orangeburg County

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: Weekly county death data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. Hospitalization data is a weekly average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with Orangeburg County. Hospitalization numbers early in the pandemic are undercounts due to incomplete reporting by hospitals to the federal government.

Historical trends in Orangeburg County

The data in these charts has been archived and they are no longer being updated.

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data in these charts has been archived and they are no longer being updated. Weekly county case data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023. Test positivity data is based only on test results reported to the federal government and is a seven-day average.

By Jon Huang, Samuel Jacoby, Jasmine C. Lee, John-Michael Murphy, Charlie Smart and Albert Sun. Additional reporting by Sarah Cahalan, Lisa Waananen Jones, Amy Schoenfeld Walker and Josh Williams. See a full list of contributors to The Times’s Covid-19 data reporting here.

About the data

Data on this page is reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Population and demographic data is from the U.S. Census Bureau. Hospitalization data is reported by individual hospitals to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and it includes confirmed and suspected adult and pediatric patients. The C.D.C. does not provide complete vaccinations data for some counties and caps its vaccination rate figures at 95 percent.

The C.D.C. may make historical updates as more data is reported.

The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on Covid cases in May 2023.