MARION (AP) – Criminal charges have been dropped against a former deputy who was helping to transport two mental health patients who drowned while locked in the back of a van that was driven into floodwaters caused by 2018’s Hurricane Florence in South Carolina.
The van’s driver, former Horry County Deputy Stephen Flood, was convicted in May of two counts of reckless homicide and is serving nine years in prison.
But authorities decided to drop involuntary manslaughter charges against former Horry County Deputy Joshua Bishop, who was riding along and didn’t realise until it was too late that Flood was risking their lives, Solicitor Ed Clements told news outlets last week.
Clements said Bishop did everything he could to rescue the women. He said Flood’s trial helped clear up Bishop’s role in the September 2018 deaths of Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43. The two women had been involuntarily committed for mental healthcare and were being transferred for treatment.
