Tag: 15th Circuit Solicitor

Goldfinch Undecided About Next Political Venture

Recently I published an article in which I said state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch would challenge 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson in the June 2022 Republican Primary.
Goldfinch called me after publication to say he had not made a decision to run for solicitor. He said he was considering several political offices and didn’t know when he would make a decision about which one to contest. Goldfinch did admit to paying a portion of the cost of a recent telephone poll in which questions about Tom Rice and Richardson were predominant.
Among the offices Goldfinch said he was considering were solicitor, S. C. 7th Congressional District currently held by Tom Rice, Lieutenant Governor or he may decide to stay with his state senate seat. The first three options will all be contested in the June 2022 primaries. He will not have to run again for nomination for senator until June 2024.
Goldfinch also stated I was wrong in saying he had plead guilty in 2013 to a federal misdemeanor for misbranded drugs in violation of Title 21, United States Code Section 331(a). He told me all the charges in the case were dropped.
I requested records from the U.S. District Court in Houston. Goldfinch is correct, the charges were ultimately dropped, but only because of an apparent administrative failure.
According to records from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division, Goldfinch “aided and abetted by others known and unknown to the United States Attorney, caused the introduction and delivery for introduction into interstate commerce stem cells that were misbranded in that the stem cells and packaging did not contain directions for use.”
According to the charging document, the stem cells referred to were used to treat patients with severe diseases such as multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in violation of federal law.
According to the court documents, an order for an issuance of summons for Goldfinch to appear in Houston, Texas at 10 A.M. December 10, 2013 for the charge was signed on November 27, 2013 by a U.S. Magistrate Judge.
According to a report by the Associated Press, dated November 28, 2013, Goldfinch told the reporter he had been cooperating with the federal investigation. Goldfinch told the Georgetown Times he would have no choice but to plead guilty to the charge. On December 4, 2013, theNerve.org published an article in which Goldfinch was quoted as saying, “I’ve fully cooperated with federal authorities and I told them I fully intend to plead guilty.”

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Goldfinch Weighing Run for Solicitor

Earlier this week I lumped Stephen Goldfinch into a group of state legislators considering a challenge to Tom Rice in the June 2022 primary.
It appears I was wrong.
Goldfinch is apparently considering challenging Jimmy Richardson for the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s job, according to a number of people I have spoken with since I wrote the article.
Richardson is generally considered a good solicitor. He trained as an assistant solicitor under Greg Hembree and was elected to the top job when Hembree moved on to the state senate in 2012.
One attorney I spoke with said, “Other than some convicted felons, I don’t know of anyone who has an issue with Jimmy Richardson.”
Goldfinch, on the other hand, would be virtually a novice in the criminal area of the law. He doesn’t appear to have handled more than a handful of criminal cases, all misdemeanors, in his law practice.
He not only has no experience with serious felony cases but would not even be eligible, according to state guidelines, to defend a death penalty case. Of course, the way things are set up, minimum requirements of years of experience for criminal defense in capital cases are mandated but for prosecution they are not.
As one attorney said to me, “The law requires competent defense not competent prosecution.” But the people demand competent prosecution against serious offenders.
Goldfinch has had one brush with the law as a criminal defendant. In 2013, Goldfinch plead guilty to one misdemeanor charge of interstate transfer of mislabeled drugs. The charge arose when federal prosecutors in Houston alleged upon their information that from April 26, 2006, through Dec. 30, 2008, a Mt. Pleasant-based company then owned and operated by Goldfinch, called Caledonia Consulting Inc., was involved with the “distribution and sale of stem cells” that had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “treat human diseases.”
At the time of the charge, Goldfinch told media he had no knowledge of illegal activities by those the stem cells were sold to or by the doctor who harvested the stem cells.
One of those doctors has presented a different story as an “official archived legal webpage” on the website of his company. That webpage can be viewed at: https://www.dammaimorganllc.com/archive-stem-cells-case.html

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