By John Monk
The State
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A former high-ranking S.C. Department of Corrections guard who authorities say became a thriving black market prison boss overseeing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and contraband pleaded guilty Monday to a federal fraud charge.
Christine Livingston, 47, will be sentenced in June or July, said U.S. District Judge Sherri Lydon at the end of a 50-minute hearing at Columbia’s downtown federal courthouse.
Livingston’s crime — which involves defrauding the public and a coverup — qualifies her for a 20-year maximum prison sentence. But defense lawyer Mark Moore — a former federal prosecutor — and prosecutors have agreed to recommend a potential sentence of between three and eight years, according to statements at the hearing. Lydon is free to disregard the recommendation.
Livingston pled guilty to “honest services wire fraud conspiracy,” a federal white collar fraud crime that involves using electronic transmissions in an unlawful scheme to deprive citizens of their tax-paid services.
The core of her scheme — which ran from 2018 to 2021 — involved smuggling cellphones and SIM cards into the prison and accepting cash bribes. To facilitate her business, she had numerous financial accounts and took bribes from 48 different people, 45 of whom were prison inmates, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliott Daniels told the judge. She bought the cellphones and other equipment from Amazon, Daniels said.
From one financial account alone, she made a total of $279,000 in bribes for smuggling. She used the money for shopping, food and buying cryptocurrency, Daniels said.
In an earlier hearing, Daniels told a magistrate judge that Livingston used go-betweens in her dealings with inmates.
A co-defendant in the case, prison inmate Jerell Reaves, was sentenced last month to five years in federal prison, with four years to run simultaneously with his current state prison sentence and one year in federal prison after his state sentence is up. Reaves is currently serving a 15-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter.
“She was in a personal relationship and business relationship with Mr. Reaves,” Daniels told Lydon.
According to the indictment in the case, Reaves’ nickname is “Hell Rell, and her nickname is “Hell Rell’s Queen.”
Livingston worked in the state prison system from 2005 to 2021, when she was fired. Her final rank was captain, her salary was $56,797 and she oversaw security and contraband policy at the Broad River Road facility, where much of the scheme was carried out.
On hand in the courtroom Monday were several Department of Corrections officials including director Bryan Stirling .
“I try to show up at all the corruption cases if I can. This is a big one, obviously,” Stirling said after the hearing.
During the hearing, Daniels told the judge that the authorities learned about the case from a tip. Stirling told a reporter that sooner or later at the prison, somebody will turn in a corrupt official.
The FBI and the corrections’ department Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Daniels co-prosecutor on the case is Michael Shedd .
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