wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina |Little known about SC State federal investigation

Little known about SC State federal investigation

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By Jody Barr - email

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ORANGEBURG, SC (WIS) - For nearly 4 1/2 hours Thursday, South Carolina State University's Board of Trustees met behind closed doors talking to Reggie Lloyd, their brand new attorney.

Lloyd and the board were going over the details of an FBI investigation, but wouldn't say what that involved.

SC State President Dr. George Cooper held a hurried press conference to confirm what a WIS investigation's tried to confirm for more than 3 months.

"Based on allegations and reports of issues brought to the attention of the administration, I established a protocol for an external investigation and engaged external legal council," said Cooper.

"This protocol will help me review and determine the validity of the allegations to ensure that police, state regulation and state and federal laws are adhered to on the campus of South Carolina State University."

Former State Law Enforcement Chief Reggie Lloyd is now representing the university. While Lloyd was in charge of SLED, state auditors wrapped up an investigation into SC State's James Clyburn Center. Auditors delivered documents to SLED and the FBI they believe warranted criminal investigation.

"We've been retained to provide legal representation and advice to the university as a part of that and in order to maintain attorney-client privileged, obviously we can't discuss details," said Lloyd.

"If everybody will be patient, let the university work through these issues, Dr. Cooper is committed to making those matters available and transparent to everybody at the end of that process."

We started work on this story more than 3 months ago when we sent SC State two Freedom of Information Act requests to look into a couple contracts, who authorized them, and which university employee was involved in them.

The university sent us a response more than an month ago, that they were looking into our requests, but we still haven't gotten a response from them.

After a third email asking for an update, the university told me about an hour ago, they'll have an update to us by Monday.

Copyright 2012 WIS. All rights reserved.

SIDEBAR: SC State Investigation

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Click here to read Thursday's Storify coverage of the SC State executive session.