Horry councilman’s prostitution trial pushed back past elections

By Jody Barr
WBTW News 13 Reporter
Published: October 2, 2008

Last October, Myrtle Beach Police arrested a Horry County councilman in the middle of a prostitution sting, and charged him with loitering for prostitutes.

Marion Foxworth, who represents District 3, said his attorney asked for the delay without his knowledge.

Foxworth said his attorneys and Myrtle Beach prosecutors met in July to set his jury trial for the week of October 20, but that his attorney, Morgan Martin, asked for a delay.

The delay comes as Foxworth faces re-election against Keith Van Winkle in November.

Foxworth said he had no clue about the delay until media reports about it surfaced this week, “I didn’t I didn’t even know it was done. I’ve turned it over to my attorneys,” Foxworth told News13.

“Let’s keep things in perspective. We’re talking about a civil; basically infraction, the city ordinance violation,” Foxworth said Thursday.

The councilman faces a $267 fine and 30 days in jail if convicted of the charges.

Myrtle Beach Police undercover agents were conducting a prostitution sting on Oct. 17, 2007 near the 3rd Avenue South and Myrtle Street intersection.

Officers said they noticed a white Oldsmobile Brevada circling the block near the intersection where an undercover officer, posing as a prostitute, was working.

The undercover officer noticed the car, which police said turned out to belong to Foxworth, parked several yards away with its lights on, according to the police report.

The report states that when the undercover officer left the area to return to a police staging area blocks away, two other undercover officers noticed Foxworth drive toward 2nd Avenue South and park on the shoulder of the road and a known prostitute, who police identified as Dorothy Crossman, got into his car.

The undercover officers followed Foxworth and Crossman to her home on Canal Street and radioed for marked units to respond, according to the police report.

Police said the pair went inside the home for several minutes, then Crossman walked out followed by Foxworth.

Officers stopped Crossman as she walked from the home and a marked patrol car stopped Foxworth as he made a turn from Canal Street onto Highway 501 because he failed to use a turn signal, according to the report.

Crossman told officers Foxworth went into her home, pulled down his pants, started performing a sex act on himself, then propositioned to pay her $20 for sex, according to the report.

The woman told police she refused to have sex with Foxworth, but that he let her keep the money.

Officers said they found a $20 bill on Crossman when police arrested her.

Police said when officers stopped Foxworth, he denied that he picked Crossman up for the purposes of prostitution and that he “knew her,” and only gave her a ride, “This house is in my district. I’ve met the lady on a couple of occasions. I was in the house a very short period of time and forensically, the city struck out,” Foxworth said.

Officers said they noticed a “fresh fluid stain” on Foxworth’s pants following his arrest and took the pants as evidence in the case.

Foxworth said, “Have you seen the DNA results? They came up empty-handed. Eight forensic tests and six DNA tests and they can’t put her DNA on my pants, and quite frankly through the chain of custody, they can’t even prove they’re my pants.”

Foxworth said Crossman told investigators several different versions of what happened that night.

News13 tried to contact city prosecutor Mike Smith for comment on the trial and Foxworth’s claims Thursday, but Smith’s assistant, Stacy Gilbert, said “Contact Mark Kruea, we don’t talk to the press,” Gilbert said over the phone.

News13 contacted Kruea, the city’s public information officer, and he said the continuance was granted in the case simply because Foxworth’s attorneys asked for it and had nothing further to add.

Foxworth said he refused to pay the fine last year because he is innocent and wants to contest the charges in court.

He said he’d hoped for a court date in August, “A week before an election? We’ve had a year to resolve this and the city decides to try it a week before an election. I think that pretty well sums up where we are,” Foxworth said.

Martin said he asked for the delay because he plans to be out of the country during the October and November terms of court.

Martin said it’s not uncommon for cases to run a year without resolution in Myrtle Beach because of the severe backlog.

Foxworth’s trial is set to start in mid-January, according to the office of the city clerk of court.