CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) -- Just before 8 a.m. Thursday, Tim Griffin parked outside the Chesterfield County Detention Center. A South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agent was also in the parking lot, waiting for Griffin to surrender.
Griffin's arrest Thursday morning marks the end of a months-long SLED investigation into allegations Griffin took money from the Pageland Chamber of Commerce during his three-year run as the nonprofit's president from 2021-2023.
Former Pageland Chamber of Commerce President Tim Griffin cups his ear to hear the judge during his bond hearing inside the Chesterfield County Detention Center on April 24, 2025. SLED charged Griffin with three counts of felony breach of trust with fraudulent intent stemming from his three-year term as chamber president. The charges are felonies under South Carolina law. (Source: WJZY/Jody Barr)SLED Agent J.T. Cutchin sought and obtained three arrest warrants on Griffin on Feb. 13, 2025, but the warrants weren't served until Griffin surrendered on April 24. In the middle of the SLED investigation into Griffin and the chamber's finances, Griffin sold his house and Pageland and moved to Tulsa, OK.
ROTTEN: Allegations of theft and corruption surround fmr. Pageland Chamber of Commerce presidentWe don't know whether SLED attempted to arrest Griffin in Tulsa in the two months since a Chesterfield County magistrate signed the three arrest warrants for breach of trust with fraudulent intent, a felony under South Carolina law.
It appears Griffin and SLED negotiated the date and time of Griffin's surrender.
Chesterfield County Magistrate Judge John Davis reads Tim Griffin the charges against him and informs Griffin of his extradition waiver, meaning if he misses a court date, the State Law Enforcement Division would find him to serve a bench warrant on him. (Source: WJZY/Jody Barr)Chestefield County Magistrate Judge John Davis signed a request from Queen City News Chief Investigative Reporter, Jody Barr, to allow Queen City News into the courtroom to video and audio record Griffin's bond hearing. However, the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office attempted to block QCN from recording the bond hearing.
Chesterfield County Detention Center Administrator Troy Ellerbe met Barr and Judge Davis in the jailhouse lobby and commanded "No images" when Davis told Ellerbe he was escorting Barr to the courtroom. When Barr challenged Ellerbe about what authority he had to pull rank on a judge's decision, "Because I said so," Ellerbe told Barr.
Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office jail administrator Troy Ellerbe (right) attempted to prevent video recording of Timothy Griffin's bond hearing on April 24, 2025, despite a judge granting formal permission to Queen City News to video record the proceedings by commanding "No images" during the hearing his reasoning for the command was "Because I said so.". The judge allowed our camera into his courtroom to record the proceeding. (Source: Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office)Ellebe walked into the administration office doorway - the same doorway that leads to the judge's chambers and courtroom. Davis allowed Barr and his camera into the courtroom under S.C. Appeals Court Rule 605, which gives South Carolina judges exclusive discretion to allow audio and video recording inside their courtrooms.
Griffin sat in a holding cell on the other side of a glass window separating Davis from Griffin. Davis set Griffin's bond at $30,000, which was $10,000 for each of the three felony charges against the former nonprofit president.
The sheriff's office further attempted to protect Griffin from being video recorded by letting him out of a back door of the jail, inside a fenced, secured parking lot behind the jail. The jail releases all inmates from the front secured entrance when they're released from custody.
Griffin jumped into a silver Chevrolet Suburban, leaned over in the front passenger seat, and the woman driving Griffin away sped off from the jail.
The three counts against Griffin accuse him of "wrongfully" using at least $10,000 of the nonprofit's money for each of the three years as head of the chamber.
"The affiant's belief is based upon witness statements, to SLED in recorded interviews, Griffin's statements to SLED in recorded interviews, and Pageland Chamber of Commerce records obtained during the investigation," the arrest warrant states.
Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office jailers escorted former Pageland Chamber of Commerce President Tim Griffin out of the back door of the jail on April 24, 2025, to a waiting Chevrolet Suburban. The unidentified female driver sped out of the back of the jail and drove through a stop sign as she sped away following Griffin's bond hearing and release from jail. (Source: WJZY/Jody Barr)In July 2023, QCN published a news investigation titled 'Rotten,' where Queen City News Chief Investigative Reporter Jody Barr obtained chamber banking records showing $50,000 in cash withdrawals from the nonprofit's bank account between 2021 and 2023.
Former Pageland Chamber of Commerce President Timothy Griffin calls out on a two-way radio during the opening day of the 2023 Watermelon Festival in downtown Pageland, S.C. Griffin is accused of stealing from the nonprofit he ran for six years. (WJZY Photo/Jody Barr)Chamber member Ethan Foard, who owns multiple businesses in and around Pageland and who also holds a seat on the county council, sued the chamber in December 2023 and later obtained the chamber's financial records. Foard accused the then-sitting chamber president of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the nonprofit.
During the civil lawsuit, Foard and his legal team obtained chamber spending records and years of banking statements, records Foard told QCN that Griffin refused to turn over to him in the months before Foard filed the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was Foard's attempt to have the circuit court dissolve the chamber after Griffin left town, and Foard believed the members of the chamber board had resigned.
Tim Griffin, who court records show did not obtain an attorney in the Ethan Foard lawsuit, filed this handwritten answer to the Foard complaint on August 23, 2024, denying Foard's allegations. The answer was not filed in the court docket before the deadline for a response, according to the South Carolina Public Index. (Source: SC Courts)Judge Paul Burch granted Foard an injunction against the chamber and later allowed Foard and his legal team access to the chamber's records. Foard turned over those records and a multiple-page statement to SLED in 2024 that led to the charges against Griffin.
Court records show the lawyer representing the chamber, as an entity, filed suit against Griffin seeking actual damages and interest, and punitive damages against Griffin.
READ: PAGELAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE V. TIMOTHY GRIFFIN
07162024-PAGELAND-CHAMBER-OF-COMMERCE-V-GRIFFIN-COMPLAINTDownloadNOT THE FIRST RODEO
Our 'Rotten' investigation also uncovered a 35-year-old arrest warrant out of Chehalis, Washington, for Timothy Griffin, who was known as Timothy Aldridge-Deane back then. The allegations against Griffin in Pageland mirror the theft case out of Washington state.
Griffin pleaded guilty to felony theft during his tenure as the Executive Director of the Lewis County, Washington, chapter of the American Red Cross. Griffin’s boss accused him of forging checks, and an internal audit showed he used Red Cross checks to pay his own rent, utilities, child support, phone bill, purchase furniture, and multiple other expenditures marked as “unknown” in the case file.
Griffin also took the Red Cross’ Cadillac and pleaded guilty to one count of “Taking a Motor Vehicle Without Permission,” which carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
READ: Chehalis, WA police reports on the 1989 American Red Cross theft prosecution of its former Executive Director, Timothy Aldridge-Deane, now known as Timothy Griffin:
89B3775-RPTS_RedactedDownloadGriffin pleaded guilty to felony theft from the 1989 case. After he was sentenced to pay more than $12,000 in restitution to the Red Cross and to report to his community supervision officer, the case file shows Griffin did not do what the judge ordered, and his community supervision officer couldn’t find him. The judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest, and law enforcement entered Griffin’s name into the National Crime Information Center as a wanted man.
Chehalis Police confirmed to Queen City News in July 2024 that the warrant is still active today, more than 30 years after the Lewis County Superior Court issued it.
The warrant does not carry an extradition request, which means if Griffin ever returns to Washington state and law enforcement finds out, he’ll be arrested and will have to serve the jail sentence imposed on him in 1991.
Otherwise, Griffin may never be arrested on the Lewis County bench warrant.
This March 11, 1992, order was signed by a Lewis County, Washington, judge after Timothy Aldridge-Deane, now known as Timothy Griffin, failed to submit to the sentence imposed on him for stealing money and a car from the American Red Cross chapter in Chehalis, Washington, in 1989. (Source: Lewis County Superior Court)Timothy Griffin would not communicate with QCN about any of the Washington state or Pageland allegations. Griffin said he’d sent a statement the week before our 'Rotten' investigation aired, but he never did.
He’s now accused of using Chamber money to have his Porsche repaired, withdrawing $50,000 in cash from the Chamber’s bank account between 2021 and 2023, and making personal Amazon purchases using the Chamber’s debit card.
A civil filing clocked into the Foard lawsuit this week by an attorney representing the Pageland Chamber of Commerce accused Griffin of “misappropriating tens of thousands of dollars of money held by a nonprofit organization and used said funds and assets for personal use and gain,” according to the complaint filed on July 16, 2024, in the Chesterfield County courthouse.
The civil lawsuit in Chesterfield County is still pending, awaiting a decision by a special referee before a final adjudication can happen.
The Chesterfield County judge allowed Griffin to return to Tulsa while under bond. A future court date for Griffin has not been set.
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