By admin 
Fourteen current and former Horry County Police members, including a former chief, have been accused in a federal lawsuit of misusing their authority in the shooting death investigation of a North Carolina man three years ago.
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The 44-page lawsuit was filed Tuesday — a day before the Sept. 9, 2023, anniversary of Scott Spivey’s fatal shooting along Camp Swamp Road in the Longs area.
The 33-year-old was shot and killed by Weldon Boyd, a well-known North Myrtle Beach restaurant owner, and Kenneth “Bradley” Williams after a road rage incident led to a high-speed chase and ended in a gun battle between the three men.
Boyd and Williams have not been charged criminally in the case after it was determined that their actions fell under South Carolina’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Both men have claimed self-defense. However, the two men now face a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Spivey’s sister, Jennifer Foley.
Foley and her parents, Deborah and Byron Spivey, who have all filed individually, claim that Horry County, as well as Horry County Police Department officers and supervisors steered the investigation to protect Boyd and Williams by manipulating or concealing evidence, abused and mistreated the remains of Spivey, coached witnesses, interfered with recordings and attempted to cover-up their misconduct.
In addition to the county, the suit names Brandon Strickland, Alan Jones, Damon Vescovi, Kerry Higgs, Daniel Spencer, Mark Johnson, Randall Ghent, Doug Dishong, Matthew Stephenson, Greg Lent, Mick Kathman, John Sotile and Joseph Hill, who was the chief at the time of Spivey’s death. All of the people named were involved in the shooting investigation.
A message left with a Horry County Police spokesperson was not returned by publication.
Boyd was close friends with police officers
Most of the claims of misconduct by the Horry County Police department hinges on 90 audio recordings and hundreds of text messages from Boyd and officer body cam footage that showed Boyd was allegedly getting preferential treatment because of his relationship with officers on the force. The information was received as part of the family’s civil suit against the two shooters.
One of those recordings was a call between then Deputy Chief Brandon Strickland, who told Boyd he was working “in the shadows” to help him. Strickland resigned after being told he was under investigation for his involvement related to the shooting death and is currently under criminal investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for his alleged conduct with Boyd.
Minutes after the shooting of Spivey, Boyd called Strickland, who had command of the criminal investigations unit and subordinate officers assigned to that unit, seeking help. Strickland was a close friend of Boyd.
After receiving the initial phone call from Boyd, Strickland “strategically and against protocol” began making contact with the other defendants, including but not limited to Alan Jones, Matthew Stephenson and Mick Kathman, who then relayed the message and plan to make sure that the “right” officers responded to the scene and to follow Boyd’s narrative of “self-defense,” the suit said.
Strickland can be heard in the recordings telling Boyd that he was sending the right people to the scene on the night of the shooting.
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Daniel Spencer was also a close personal friend of Boyd and Strickland, and during the investigation, Spencer obtained information concerning the investigation and relayed that information to Boyd, the suit claims.
Supervisors told officers to ‘be nice’ to Boyd, suit claims
On Sept. 11, 2023, the first business day following Spivey’s killing, the supervisors and officers involved in the Spivey case, assembled for a command-level meeting concerning the investigation, the suit claims. The meeting also included other interested persons at the department who were close to Boyd, the suit said. The assembled personnel collectively reviewed what had occurred, determined the direction the investigation would take, decided what investigative avenues would and would not be pursued, determined how evidence and competing accounts would be treated, and established the course by which the shooting would be investigated, the suit said.
HCPD supervisors and those in command roles directed lower-ranking officers to “be nice” to Boyd and Williams, making it apparent to subordinate officers that command personnel were attempting to help and protect Boyd and Williams, the suit said.
The suit claims that the misconduct caused litigation injuries in the wrongful death and survival actions against Boyd and Williams. The department lost the video recording of the shooting from Boyd’s tablet, which was never seized; electronic communication between Boyd and Williams was destroyed or altered; blood alcohol and toxicology evidence was contaminated through the deliberate exposure of Spivey’s body to extreme heat; and the loss of other material evidence, the suit said.
Officers disciplined, terminated over case
The HCPD originally investigated the shooting death. However, after Spivey‘s family raised several concerns about the department’s handling of the case and alleged misconduct by officers both the Attorney General’s Office and SLED were asked to review the case.
An internal investigation by HCPD led to at least five officers being accused of misconduct. Three officers were disciplined after seven videos of officers’ dash cam footage from the night of the shooting was discovered. The footage was said to be mislabeled.
Longtime officer Paul Damon Vescovi was terminated for “conduct unbecoming of an officer” and other policy violations related to his actions on the case.
The termination came after Vescovi‘s body camera footage at the scene showed him writing “Act Like a Victim” and “Camera” on a notepad that he showed to Boyd.
After receiving the initial phone call from Boyd, defendant Strickland strategically and against protocol began making contact with the other defendants herein, including but not limited to Alan Jones, M. Stephenson, and Mick Kathman, who then relayed the message and plan to other defendants, to make sure that the “right” officers responded to the scene and knew to follow Boyd’s narrative of “self-defense” and to violate protocol in any way necessary to ensure the narrative was not contradicted by any actual investigation in order to protect Boyd from any civil or criminal liability as a result of murdering Spivey.
When plaintiffs discovered Boyd’s recordings, the joint and concerted misconduct by and between these defendants was uncovered. Plaintiffs did not and could not have discovered the full scope of defendants’ misconduct until they obtained the case file materials via subpoenas on or about July 23, 2024, November 5, 2024, March 13, 2025, and May 1, 2026, which revealed recording and other concealed evidence that was previously not available to them.
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