It's probation for Susan Meloan
The wife of a serial pedophile was sentenced to probation Tuesday for her part in a crime related to having sex with an underage boy.
Susan Meloan, 70, of North Augusta, entered an Alford plea to the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended on the service of one year probation, 100 hours of community service and a letter of apology sent to her victim.
She invoked the Alford plea to the crime of having sex with an underage boy, a 16-year-old. There was no plea negotiation or recommendation of sentence from the Solicitor's office.
An Alford plea means the defendant did not specifically admit her guilt, but acknowledges there is overwhelming evidence against her. Such a plea allows the court to impose a sentence as if the defendant had been convicted of the crime.
Meloan has admitted the crime for which she was sentenced on two occasions -- once in a conversation with the victim and once in a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) interview. Also, her victim has provided extremely detailed and intimate information about Meloan and the inside of her home.
The defendant was originally charged with committing a lewd act on a minor -- a far more serious sex crime that can be punished with more than a decade in jail and sex offender registration. However, she could not be charged under the statute, according to Solicitor Strom Thurmond Jr., because of the believed age of her victim at the time of the attack. The law as it read in the 1970s did not include 16-year-olds.
In court it was revealed that the victim did not wish to pursue charges against Meloan as he believed she was coerced into the act by her husband. The victim had told the Solicitor's office this and repeated his request to the court via a letter.
Meloan is the wife of Edward Meloan, a convicted child molester who received a 78-year sentence earlier this year.
Edward Meloan, 75, pleaded guilty to a dozen child sex crimes -- five counts of performing lewd acts on a child, six counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and one count of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. The charges date back to the late '60s through the mid-'70s and came to light in 2007 when one of his victims contacted North Augusta Department of Public Safety. In total, the charges represented six male victims who were under the age of 14 at the time the acts occurred.
