Micah Black vs. Jaime Motta: When Justice Became a Test of Character

When Micah Black took office as the new Solicitor for South Carolina’s 10th Judicial Circuit, many hoped he would be the man to finally break Oconee County’s long and sordid history of corruption. After years of scandals under former Solicitor Jason Alderman, Black had a clean slate and a chance to lead with transparency, integrity, and courage. The case of Jaime Motta, the innocent man who spent nearly two and a half years in jail without trial, offered him the perfect opportunity to set a new tone — one rooted in justice rather than politics.

He was off to a good start when Jason alderman was forced to resign after a history of intimidating his wife and neighbors by shooting his guns in the middle of the night and then getting into a drunken bar brawl where he was the aggressor targeting peaceful patrons. Instead. Yet, in the end, Black made his choice — and it was the wrong one.

The Chance to Lead with Justice

When Micah Black assumed the role of solicitor in early 2025, the public welcomed him as a reformer, a man of faith who promised to restore trust in a system tarnished by deceit. The resignation of Jason Alderman, whose tenure was marked by ethical breaches and coercive plea practices, was supposed to signal a new beginning. For a moment, there was hope that Oconee County might finally turn the page.

But the truth became clear soon enough. The Motta case — already a stain on Oconee’s record — became the ultimate test of Black’s leadership. Here was a man held unlawfully for almost 19 moths when Black took office, denied a speedy trial, denied an evidentiary hearing, and denied even the basic humanity owed to any person in custody. A judge had twice ordered the prosecution to produce the key witness or dismiss the case; both times the solicitor’s office failed to do so. Instead of ending the injustice, Black prolonged it believing he would find a way to save face while knowing he did not have a case on Motta.

He had every opportunity to correct course — and chose not to.

The Decision to Break a Man

Black could have freed Jaime Motta. He could have dismissed a case his office knew was rotten. But rather than act with integrity, he carried on the tradition of Oconee County’s corruption, using prolonged incarceration as leverage — a form of psychological warfare designed to make an innocent man plead guilty.

It was a tactic as cruel as it was cowardly: keep him locked up long enough, strip him of hope, and wait for him to break. The assumption was that no one could endure years in a cell without caving. They misjudged Jaime.

When deportation became their backup plan, it was clear how deep the cynicism ran. Black’s office knew Jaime was here legally when he was arrested in 2023. His immigration status was current. But after two and a half years of unlawful detention, that paperwork naturally expired — and now, rather than releasing him after his not guilty verdict, they are attempting to hand him over to ICE to be deported. Anything they can do to keep him out of the media and prevent him from filing a civil rights lawsuit.

This isn’t law. It’s retribution. They lost in court and now want to erase the evidence of their failure by deporting the man they couldn’t convict.

The Mask of Faith and the Rot Beneath

What makes this all the more disturbing is that Micah Black wraps himself in the language of faith — invoking God, morality, and righteousness — while presiding over one of the most despicable abuses of authority Oconee County has seen in years. This is almost as bad as the set up of James Bartee.

Only a man that secretly serves the devil can preach scripture on Sunday and condone injustice on Monday. You cannot claim to serve truth while keeping an innocent man caged because freeing him would expose your own failures. Faith without accountability is hypocrisy.

Micah Black had the chance to build a legacy of courage and integrity — to stand up to the old guard that has poisoned this county’s reputation for decades. Instead, he doubled down on deceit, aligning himself with the same apparatus of lies, silence, and manipulation that defines Oconee’s so-called “justice system.”

He chose comfort over conscience.

The Letter That Demands an Answer

On November 8, 2025, one day after Jaime Motta was found not guilty on all counts by a unanimous jury, I sent a letter to Solicitor Black — a letter that history will remember long after this case fades from the headlines. It was not written out of anger, but out of necessity. It documented, in plain language, the truth he and his office have refused to face.

It reminded him that his legacy is being written right now — not by the sermons he gives, nor by the titles he holds, but by his choices in the moments that test his character. It reminded him that justice delayed is justice denied, and that the system he inherited will only change when he stops defending it and starts dismantling it.

That letter stands as both an indictment and a challenge — a challenge to every official in Oconee County who thinks silence can still protect them. It is a call to conscience that cannot be ignored.

Because when history looks back, it won’t remember the excuses.
It will remember who stood for justice, and who tried to bury it.

On November 8, 2025, the day after the jury found Jaime Motta not guilty on all counts, I sent this formal letter to Solicitor Micah Black at micah.black@solicitor10.org, demanding accountability for his office’s continued unlawful detention of an innocent man. The letter was copied to every level of authority that shares responsibility for this injustice — including the Oconee County Council (Districts 1–5), County Attorney David A. Root, representatives from the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office (Danny Kirkland, Andrew Powell, Alan Wilson, Susan Spencer, and Grace Sommer), the U.S. Department of Justice (Danny Foster), defense attorney Charles Grose, 10th Circuit Judge McIntosh’s chambers, the ACLU of South Carolina, and even the Office of Professional Responsibility at ICE. Every agency that has touched this case has now been formally placed on notice. This letter is more than correspondence — it is a public record of truth, sent to those who can no longer claim ignorance of what has been done in Oconee County.

Dear Solicitor Black,

Your legacy is being written right now.

Jaime Motta has been found not guilty on all counts by a jury that would not support your corruption. The evidence that should have freed him years ago finally spoke for itself—but only after you supported keeping him incarcerated for two and a half years on a fraudulent charge. The truth was always plain. The case was built on fabrication, and your office knew it. Yet you held an innocent man in jail, violating every principle the Constitution exists to protect.

Even now, after a unanimous acquittal, you are helping facilitate Jaime’s re-imprisonment under the pretext that his immigration paperwork “expired” while he was unlawfully detained. That paperwork expired because you kept him locked up. Instead of restoring his freedom, you are attempting to hand him over to ICE—hoping that deportation will erase your office’s embarrassment and bury the record of what Oconee County just witnessed. You are not seeking justice. You are seeking to cover it up.

From the beginning, this case was a disaster of your office’s making. You prosecuted a man you knew was innocent, relied on false testimony, and ignored every warning sign. You dropped every charge but one when the lies could no longer hold—and even then, the jury saw through it. You tried to outlast the truth, to exhaust an innocent man until he broke, pled guilty, or disappeared. That is not justice. That is persecution.

The corruption of Oconee County is being exposed as we speak, and you are still digging the hole deeper. The ethical failure here is not limited to one trial—it is systemic. It reflects a culture in which preserving the image of authority matters more than protecting the rights of the accused, where the machinery of prosecution has become a tool of intimidation instead of accountability.

You had a choice: to admit error and begin rebuilding public trust, or to double down on deceit. You chose the latter. And that choice will define you.

When history looks back on this case, it will not remember you as the man who sought justice, but as the man who tried to destroy it to protect his ego and office.

I pray that the civil-rights lawsuits that follow lay bare every layer of this corruption, so completely that neither the courts nor the public can ever look away again. The people of Oconee County deserve better. Jaime Motta deserved better. And, you know it.

Sincerely,

Jason M. Boyle, Ph.D.