Eubanks indicted on sex charges 9/18/2009 10:38 AM
By MIKE GELLATLY Staff writer
A former Aiken County school administrator has been indicted on a myriad of charges related to alleged sexual assaults committed between the 1970s and 1990s.
Stephen Coke Eubanks, 67, of Belair Road in North Augusta, has been indicted by an Aiken County grand jury on 19 charges ranging from criminal sexual conduct with a minor to enticing an enrolled child from school.
In late 2008, one victim coming forward led to a statewide appeal for other possible victims which yielded other allegations being levied at the former educator.
According to court documents, Eubanks is accused of having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old boy at the former educator's Belair Road home between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 1993.
Other allegations include accusations that he a teen watched pornography and engaged in masturbation and oral sex; that Eubanks plied teenagers with alcohol and drugs and that he sexually abused a North Augusta High School student and Paul Knox Junior High School student in the 1970s.
In addition to working in Aiken County, Eubanks is a former school administrator with the Georgetown and Lancaster County school systems, and state agents said they are also investigating in those areas.
A grand jury indictment moves the case but is not any sort of conviction or evidence. This panel merely assesses whether a case has enough evidence to go to trial.
Eubanks is currently out on $25,000 bond on house arrest with a GPS monitor. He can have no contact with anyone under the age of 16 without supervision.
Eubanks has retained prominent Columbia defense attorney Jack Swerling. Swerling did not make comment on the case Thursday.
Contact Mike Gellatly at mgellatly@aikenstandard.com.
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Comment Title: Eubanks
Is this the same Steve Eubanks that worked for Lancaster Schools back in the mid 1980's?
Posted by: On: 9/24/2009
Comment Title: Guilty Until Proven Innocent in Aiken
Stephanie Kirkland was guilty in Aiken too until proven innocent when ALL of the charges were dropped against her. What a screwed up county!!!!
Posted by: " True Beleif " On: 9/23/2009
Comment Title: " Twisted City"
Now every person in the paper who have been locked up for selling drugs have been called scumbags. I have read several comments stating "they should be killed or jailed for life." Now you have grandpa here playing with little lucy after he takes his viagara and the citizens are taking up for him. Wow what a twisted community. Food for thought - After reading this article would you still feel so strong about his innocents that you would leave your child with him? Come on a scum is a scum white,black,blue,or green. Put the color aside people and look at the crime being commited. If this is true I say hang his ass up in the tree beside the rest of the scumbags.
Posted by: On: 9/21/2009
Comment Title: 67 Years Old
This guy is 67 years old. Who give a shit. Why are we wasting our money on this when we should be going after the murderers in Aiken County?
Posted by: On: 9/20/2009
Comment Title: Over Thirty Years Ago
What's wrong with Aiken? This BS is alleged to have happened over 30 years ago. Who's the dumb ass whose trying to prosecute this case - hope they have some hard evidence?
Posted by: On: 9/20/2009
Comment Title: Monthly Indictments
Why is the Aiken Standard writing an article about these indictments when people get indicted every month by the grand jury? What's the big deal here? We could understand it if the newspaper routinely reported on all indictments handed down each month. This seems very odd for only this one criminal case to be highlighted out of the thousands that are being prosecuted in the Aiken judicial system.
Posted by: Brown Sugar On: 9/20/2009
Comment Title: GPS Monitoring Costs
Who's paying for his electronic GPS monitoring costs and how much? Also, when is this case going to trial. Typically, a case is suppose to go to trial soon after the indictments are handed down since this is the point when the prosecutor is ready for trial. Why didn't the Aiken Standard interview the prosecutor to find out when trial has been set on this case?
Posted by: On: 9/19/2009
Comment Title: Brisbins Incompetence
If Brenda Brisbin looses this case or gives Eubanks PTI or a no jail time probation deal, Strom Thurmond needs to run her off given the fact that the Aiken Standard has made such a big deal out of the numerous charges and indictments that followed which were so strongly supported by the grand jury based on the "evidence." This time she's not dealing with a moron like Bruce Hall who has an IQ of 51 and who was defended by the public defender.
Posted by: On: 9/19/2009
Comment Title: Rubber Stamp
Aiken Standard why don't you give us the statistics on how many charges the Aiken Grand Jury refuses to indict vs those that they elect to indict since they are suppose to be screening out the weak cases and saving the taxpayers the expense of continuing to prosecute weak criminal cases? Come on Scott Hunter show us you have some balls.
Posted by: On: 9/19/2009
Comment Title: Two Decades
Why did it take more than two years for this queer to disclose? Must be more to this story.
Posted by: On: 9/19/2009
Comment Title: Brisbin - Morgan
Brenda Brisbin was able to get away with this non-sense when she had Barbara Morgan as her solicitor boss. However, we don't believe that Strom Thurmond is going to let her play these foolish emotionally charged games unless she has more than a he says she says case which by all rights should be dismissed upon receipt at the solicitor's office unless other alleged credible victims surface or more evidence is quickly produced by our GED educated Sheriff Mike Hunt.
Posted by: On: 9/19/2009
Comment Title: Investigate System
I think the Aiken Standard should look into the above comments. I wonder if the facts support the comments made. This information is in the files of past cases. Do a little work Karen and see what you can find for a factual report to the citizens. I wonder what Brenda's back ground shows in regard to these type cases. Has she got a personal experence in her life that gives her a personal drive to charge citizens with little facts.I would worry about a charge that went unreported for 25 year. Get tthe history of cases and Brenda and tell all of Aiken County what you find.
Posted by: American Nothing Else On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Segregated Crime
Wow even the crime is segregated in Aiken!! The so called Colored Thugs commit violent crimes and the Good Old White Boys are the sex offenders. Simply amazing. When will the White Churches and the White leaders stand up and speak out about these White Sex Offenders going after our children? Sounds stupid? Sounds like most of the comments that I read in this section when a Black Man commits a crime...
Posted by: On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Fighting Charges
If you're going to fight unfounded hearsay charges you have to get a real defense attorney and they don't exist in Aiken. Defense attorneys in Aiken just arrange plea bargain deals and don't want to upset the solicitors office. Even James Whittle, who's a fairly good defense attorney, sits right behind former Solicitor Barbara Morgan and her husband Pastor Fred Andrea at Aiken Baptist Church every Sunday. What a great deal as he puts his 10% in the basket each week at this church and then gets his clients to accept plea bargain deals on Monday.
Posted by: Laura M. On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Abhorrent charges
As I've written on this site previously, crime is color blind - here, there and everywhere. Now, maybe some of the more repugnant comments by some of our town's less enlightened readers will cease.
Posted by: On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: hmmm... coincidence?
Did you notice this is the same attorney representing John Harte?!
Posted by: On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Motion to Remove GPS Monitor House Arrest
More than likely Jack has made a motion to remove electronic GPS monitoring and house arrest as Brenda is dragging her feet with the case. Brenda Brisbin feels like her back is against the wall and ran to the grand jury to secure the indictments in an attempt to intimidate Eubanks into accepting her plea bargain deal and of course the Aiken Standard is struggling to support the solicitor's office (Brenda Brisbin) with this silly article. Would love to see a trial with Brenda Brisbin acting as the prosecutor and Jack Swerling as defense attorney. What a blood bath that would be assuming Brisbin could even figure out what charges she was attempting to prosecute him on. Aiken Standard please let us know when this circus is going to happen.
Posted by: Bruce On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Aiken Indictments
Over 50% of the indictments handed down in Aiken by the Grand Jury are dropped for one reason or another. Go check the records at the Court House if you don't believe this.
Posted by: On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Smells Like a Plea Bargain
Why don't you go and ask Brenda Brisbin if she's offered him a plea bargain deal which he is refusing to take and now she's stated her case briefly to the Aiken Grand Jury and secured these indictments knowing that she doesn't have any admissible evidence available to successfully prosecute the case before a jury of 12 of his peers. Also, why don't you go and talk to any of the good old boy attorneys in Aiken and ask them what they think about the Aiken Grand Jury indictment process and report that news in the Aiken Standard. Eubanks will not take a plea and Brenda is just going to have to either drop the charges or loose in a trial against Jack Swerling.
Posted by: On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Plea Bargain
Why don't you go and ask Brenda Brisbin if she's offered him a plea bargain deal which he is refusing to take and now she's stated her case briefly to the Aiken Grand Jury and secured these indictments knowing that she doesn't have any admissible evidence available to successfully prosecute the case before a jury of 12 of his peers. Also, why don't you go and talk to any of the good old boy attorneys in Aiken and ask them what they think about the Aiken Grand Jury indictment process and report that news in the Aiken Standard. Eubanks will not take a plea and Brenda is just going to have to either drop the charges or loose in a trial against Jack Swerling.
Posted by: TheTruthIsTheTruth On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Rubber Stamp?
Hardly- a grand jury's main function is to determine, given the facts of the case, whether the grand jury (which comprises of citizens)feels that there is enough to secure a conviction if the case is brought to trial. The only thing the solicitor does is supply them with evidence and facts. Bringing in a grand jury also shields the prosecutor and their office from being sued for wrongful arrest later.Grand jury's do not "rubber stamp" anything that the prosecutors bring to them.
Posted by: On: 9/18/2009
Comment Title: Rubber Stamp
That doesn't mean anything in Aiken. The grand jury will indict anyone the solicitor wants them to. It's a one sided event and they just feed them a line of bull. We know a person who was indicted for having a sugar pill. What a scam.
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