Alderman, Oconee Public Defender, Arrested Again

Jason Alderman, Oconee County Public Defender, was arrested in the early hours of June 27, 2026, for DUI, according to Busted Newspaper. OconeeNews.org has submitted a FOIA request to the South Carolina Highway Patrol for additional information related to the arrest. Although we do not know the details yet, we do know this is yet another incident in the ongoing saga of Alderman.

Alderman was previously a deputy solicitor in the Tenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office, serving Oconee County. He was forced to resign after he had a violent episode at the Chattooga River Lodge and Campground on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2024. I personally went and reviewed the security video that showed Alderman assaulting a man who was pushing him away. He pushed a woman aggressively to get to a separate male target. He assaulted a 19-year-old who was minding his own business and then punched the father of the boy in the face, knocking one of his teeth out. That man then commenced to beating Alderman on the ground. In the mug shot of Alderman, there is visible bruising on his face. One patron said Alderman was flashing his badge and had the devil in his eyes.

It is purported that the victim of this assault, the one who lost a tooth, contacted the Solicitor’s Office to make a complaint and was put through to Alderman. That is correct: an informant tells me that Alderman took charge of communication with his own victim during the initial attempt to contact the Solicitor’s Office. The victim purportedly then moved to the victim advocacy personnel within the same office and was told that if he pressed charges against Alderman, the Solicitor’s Office would have him charged with assault.

Herein lies the problem. If the story that I heard and reported here is true, it means that Jason Alderman committed multiple high-level felonies worthy of an FBI investigation for witness intimidation. Do you think any investigation will ever happen? Of course not. Yet, when Chris S. had a leaf fire that got out of control and burned part of his neighbor’s grass, causing no monetary damages and having no intent, he was held for four months in jail until he was given the option of taking a plea deal for arson and going home, or staying in jail with an inflated bond until his trial, which would be months away. Alderman is accused of using this tactic repeatedly: keeping people in jail with insufficient evidence and then boosting his prosecution rates through extended detention times and the promise of freedom in a plea deal. These are the dirty tactics used to keep the jail full, to protect state actors, and to preserve illegal forfeitures.

Alderman has had multiple complaints of shooting his guns at night at his house, reportedly while intoxicated, while he was the solicitor. Some reports state that on one occasion a judge rushed to the scene to convince the Oconee Sheriff to go home without questioning Alderman, again, presumably to hide the fact that he was under the influence, making the firing of weapons in close proximity to the neighbor’s house after midnight a felony. There were reports of shooting guns in the night to intimidate the neighbors on multiple occasions, including one covered by me when I went to his house the night of a reported shooting. When I showed up, Alderman was locked in his home avoiding Oconee Sheriff’s attempts to contact him, presumably because he had been drinking. Shooting guns, even apparently at 2 in the morning in a neighborhood, is allowed by the sheriff if you are the solicitor. Avoiding questioning to ensure that no evidence of intoxication makes the report is part of that privilege awarded to the solicitor.

It appears to a neutral observer that being offered a position as a public defender after being forced to resign as the solicitor for disorderly conduct is something that is questionable at the least. Are we to believe that the state is unable to find a qualified attorney to act as a public defender who does not have controversy? Or is it more reasonable to think that Alderman has all the information needed to expose the misbehavior of the Oconee County Sheriff, solicitor, judicial system, and all those who benefited from forfeiture?

It is not the intent of OconeeNews.org, or myself, Jason Boyle, to add to the suffering of Jason Alderman. He clearly needs help, and we hope he gets it. The point is to address the hypocrisy in the system, the favoritism, and the potential for transparency. Oconee County fills its jails by questionable tactics, uses forfeiture laws to enrich itself and its employees, and cannot keep accountability in the evidence room. Jason Alderman, during his years as a deputy solicitor for Oconee County in the Tenth Circuit, aggressively prosecuted even minor infractions, keeping people in jail for extended times and then pressuring them to take plea deals so that the county would not remain liable. Look no further than his handling of the case of Jaime Motta. Arrested with no evidence outside of the testimony of a questionable accuser who kept changing her story, Motta was offered multiple plea deals, including time served, and instead demanded his innocence. After being held for more than two years without so much as an evidence hearing, he was found not guilty on all counts by a jury. Alderman was a deputy solicitor for the majority of this case before he was forced to resign.

If I could speak directly to Alderman, this is what I would write.

Jason,

I am not your enemy. When Oconee County was attacking my family under full color of the law, I pleaded with you to protect us, and you did not so much as acknowledge my messages. When Judge Singleton held a criminal trial in the Probate Court to put me in jail without any constitutional protections, I wrote you emails and physically went to your office multiple times. You hid from me. When my wife was chased through her yard while being called the N-word, with threats to kill her, you helped ensure no police report was produced. Yet, I have also heard a rumor that when people within the Sheriff’s Department wanted to escalate the matters, you requested that they not.

I understand that life can be challenging. Perhaps what is giving you the unrest that leads to the unstable behavior we have been observing for years is the fact that there is a good man inside of your heart. The people who have been protecting you from prosecution and accountability all of these years do not care about you. They only care that you do not expose them. You were not offered the position of public defender after being forced to resign because they wanted well for you. They know that if you become a loose cannon, you have all the information to destroy the structure of corruption you once supported.

You are that guy. You can be the hero. Please contact the FBI and ask for protection. If you tell them the truth, you will need it. Please, join the resistance!!

Sincerely,

Jason M. Boyle

About

Contact

Submit a story

Oconee News © 2024

Oconee News is dedicated to exposing corruption within the local law enforcement agencies and judicial system.

Contact us: Info@OconeeNews.orgtataverCtical

Reframe your inbox

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss a story.

We care about your data in our privacy policy.