By PHILLIP BANTZ
phillip.bantz@sclawyersweekly.com
Turns out that lighting was not to blame for knocking out a S.C. Law Enforcement Division computer server holding hundreds of thousands of implied consent videos in DUI cases statewide.
SLED officials, including senior agent Bruce Smith, had said that lightning hit a transformer and fried a device called a “rectifier” inside the server’s auxiliary power supply, leaving defense attorneys unable to access their clients’ videos from July 5 to Aug. 7.
But on Wednesday, SLED Chief Mark Keel acknowledged that the server malfunction actually “had nothing to do with a lightning strike,” according to a news release from the S.C. Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. A call to Keel was referred to SLED spokesman Thom Berry, who referred comment back to Keel, who was not available.
Keel also reportedly denied that hackers shut down the server. SLED has been adamantly denying this from the beginning but the agency still has not said exactly what caused the problem.
“The concern that we have is transparency,” said SCACDL executive director Kitty Sutton. “Why blame lighting if that’s not what did it? Let’s get to the bottom of what caused this server to malfunction.”