Web posted Jun. 13, 97 at 01:05 AM
By Kathy Steele
South Carolina Bureau
AIKEN - South Carolina has raised the bar on the legal age for marriages to 14 years for girls and 16 for boys.
Gov. David Beasley signed the new state law Thursday.
The bill is in response to reports that girls as young as 12 were being forced into arranged marriages with older men in the Irish Traveler community in Murphy Village. An episode of Dateline NBC prompted public outcry, followed by a decision from Attorney General Charlie Condon to form the South Carolina Traveler Crime Task Force.
A common law statute that had been on the books since South Carolina's inception allowed children as young as 12 years old to marry with parental consent.
Mr. Condon held a press conference in Aiken County on March 16 to announce plans to amend the law. He said then that common law in South Carolina ``may well provide a loophole to allow such arrangements.''
The press conference was held one day after the state task force swept through Murphy Village and arrested 14 Irish Travelers on charges of food stamp fraud, tax evasion and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The delinquency charges related only to the truancy of Traveler children from school.
Aiken County Sheriff Howard Sellers said at the time that the task force, which had conducted a six-month investigation, had been prepared to issue warrants for violation of the existing marriage laws.
However, he said the attorney general's office advised against the warrants.
The Irish Travelers are a reclusive community of itinerant workers, about 2,000, living in lavish houses and mobile homes on either side of U.S. Highway 25, between Aiken and Edgefield counties. They're descended from 19th century Irish peddlers, and some have reputations as scam artists.
By Kathy Steele
South Carolina Bureau The Augusta Chronicle
NORTH AUGUSTA -- Three Irish Travelers from Murphy's Village in North Augusta have been indicted on federal charges of filing false loan applications to buy pickup trucks in Wayne, Nebraska.
The indictments were announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nebraska.
Thomas ``Champ'' O'Hara, 47, and his sons, Michael, 26, and Bryan, 24, were charged in separate indictments with one count each of fraudulent use of a Social Security card. They are being held in Omaha at the Douglas County Detention Center after being arrested in June on a federal warrant in Eldorado, Kansas.
The arrests were made with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No bond has been set. An arraignment is expected next week.
According to federal prosecutors, the men went to Arnie's Ford-Mercury Truck Dealership in Wayne, Neb., on May 28 to buy pickup trucks. In an attempt to finance the vehicles, the men filled out loan applications using false Social Security numbers, prosecutors said.
Under federal law, that's a felony.
In a press release, the U.S. Attorney's office characterized the Travelers as ``a law enforcement nightmare in Nebraska and across the country for years.'' Not all Travelers engage in criminal activity, but U.S. Attorney Thomas Monaghan has said he will aggressively prosecute anyone suspected of involvement in this sort of activity.
There also have been some reports of scams in Nebraska involving phony roofing, paving, painting and home repair jobs by people believed to be Travelers from Murphy Village.
The loan scam works something like this, prosecutors said. When buying a vehicle, often a small cash down payment is made but monthly payments arranged in the loan deal are later stopped. It's then left to credit companies to try and repossess them.
The maximum penalty for fraudulent use of a Social Security card is five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both, followed by up to three years of probation.
The Irish Travelers are a reclusive community of about 2,000 who live in lavish homes and mobile homes, straddling Aiken and Edgefield counties along U.S. Highway 25. They are descended from itinerant peddlers, and some have reputations for being con artists.
omygosh-- what a tragedy for the wee little things, and the state will only give them two more years of childhood? Scandalous!