Josh Kimbrell, the host of Common Cents, a popular Christian talk radio show in Greenville, South Carolina, was arrested this week and charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The radio host, considered a “rising star” in state politics, has connections to some of the most powerful conservatives in state office, include Gov. Nikki Haley. Kimbrell is accused of sexually abusing a 3-year-old boy.
“According to the arrest warrant, Kimbrell, under the guise of a game, fondled the child and committed other sexual acts against the boy,” WYFF-4 reported when the news first broke.
FitsNews, a local conservative blog, first broke the story on the talk hosts’ arrest, noting the potential for a shake-up if the allegations prove to be true. It’s worth noting, however, that prosecutors have already moved forward with the criminal charges; the next step is to go to trial. The allegations could shake-up Republican associates in the midterm election, as Kimbrell is a well-known ally and connected to many candidates as well as politicians in office:
Kimbrell is one of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley‘s staunchest supporters – as well as a close ally of former SCGOP chairman Chad Connelly. In fact he’s repeatedly touted her ethics reform legislation (apparently failing to read the fine print). He also recently hosted a forum on the rule of law featuring U.S. Reps. Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney.
Kimbrell also reportedly had designs on holding political office himself – and is connected to the social conservatives who recently took over the Greenville (S.C.) Republican Party from a group of limited government fiscal conservatives.
“He was a rising conservative star in the Upstate,” one of our well-connected sources said.
The rising political star has been spotted recently making the rounds with Senator Ted Cruz, and although the endorsements have been scrubbed from Gov. Nikki Haley’s website, it’s well-known that he’s campaigned for her during this election cycle and that he is a former member of Haley‘s “Faith and Family Coalition.” Recently, Kimbrell hosted Reps. Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney at an outdoor barbecue event titled Restoring the Rule of Law.
He is also chair of the Palmetto Conservative Alliance. A statement issued by the board of the directors of the Palmetto Conservative Alliance – which includes three members of Haley’s faith and family group, said, “Josh is in the midst of a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife to maintain an on-going parenting relationship with his three year-old son,” the statement read. “It is not uncommon that allegations such as these arise in the course of such disputes, particularly when the complainant, in this case the ex-wife, can benefit from the allegations.”
Here’s a video of Kimbrell discussing “covenants.”
We will keep you updated as this story unfolds.
[Image Credit: FitsNews]
Maybe it’s too early to comment but still, to think that these are the same guys who preach homosexuality is a sin!
Got to say, these people are incredible. Really!
I don’t remember where I read it but I saw something in the past few months talking about how closed off many members of regions are and that this really does happen more than people are away of. It might be early, but even the talk of it gets me ruffled up. There is nothing worse than someone who preys on children like this.
Abusing a child sexually is pedophilia, dunno what this has to do with homosexuality.
accusations aside, a faith and family group commenting on an ex-wife seems hypocritical
I don’t see this as a political issue; if it’s true, it’s simply a tragedy. There are perverts in all walks of life and helping and supporting the victims is what the rest of us need to focus on.
It is too bad that now in the world there is always more shaming of a person than supporting them. Shame never helps in situations like this when support is what we really need. I guess we have gotten into the “It does not matter as it does not impact me personally” attitude.
GOP family values in South Carolina are complicated. One day it’s all in on voter suppression the next day its having sex with three year olds.
Some days it’s hiking the Appalachian Trail to hook up with your Argentine lover. South Carolingians must love this stuff. The keep voting the offending politicians back into office.
Don’t also forget the former SC GOP head who a week or so ago stated that we need to humanely put down anyone with ebola. Sorry nurses recovering, bad luck.
If the square in the middle that says “We need to wait for our justice system, besides who amongst us has not sinned?” taken?
“It is not uncommon that allegations such as these arise in the course of such disputes”
What is that 1 out of 2 or just one’s where it is real.
“Which doesn’t explain why a prosecutor would think there was enough evidence to press charges and hold Kimbrell in jail.” – How about the prosecutor and judge don’t like him? Or the prosecutor wants to damage the candidates and causes Josh supports? Or any number of other explanations. What is “bitter” about the custody battle? Why did they divorce? Is the wife’s attorney friends with the prosecutor and/or judge? There could be under currents we don’t even know about. At this point we just don’t know the facts. The answer to justphilip is: Yes, it is too early to comment. And how about a link to the arrest warrant so we can read it?
See also:https://www.facebook.com/wspatv/posts/10152736982182593
yes, I totally trust a Facebook posting from an egg avatar as fact rather than a judge and prosecutor in a primarily Republican state who chose to press charges against a Christian conservative after weighing the merit of the evidence and allegations
Don’t worry, though –it’s not ME you have to convince. It’s the judge and the jury. Let’s wait for the court date before essentially calling the judge and prosecutor corrupt. I wouldn’t want to anger them if I were in your political camp. but that’s just me. Anger whoever you want.
Perhaps you should concentrate less on the court of public and more on hiring an attorney. A good one.
Actually the egg is much more attractive than my face so I’ll stick with that.
What I was pointing out is that there are any number of explanations (albeit just as opinionated) for what was going on other than the obviously biased implications of this blog post. I am not calling the legal system in South Carolina corrupt. I’ll leave that to fitsnews and any number of bloggers that are more intimately aware of how that system works. Not well judging by some of the stories and statistics I’ve read. But then again name a judicial system that works better especially for the ex-husband.
I did read a few other sources and found out:
1. He was not held “without” bond, he was being held UNTIL the proper type of judge was available. Notice that breitbartunmasked hasn’t bothered to update the post with information about Josh’s current status.
2. That the police were merely doing what the warrant told them to do. Not sure what the process is for this type of warrant being issued, but since I am curious I’ll probably try to find out. The actual investigation will be done by the solicitor’s office and/or other agencies.
3. That the divorce was “bitter.” That the ex-wife has remarried and apparently the new husband has been restationed to Texas and that the current custody agreement wouldn’t allow her to move to Texas with the child. Sounds like a motive for a false accusation to me but the justice system is supposed to be blind so the prosecutor and police just have to act based on what they are told without trying to judge the accuser’s motive. The veracity of the accusation will be looked at during the investigation and judged during the trial (if there is one).
Well this is much more fun that doing laundry but those clothes won’t fold themselves.
What I was pointing out about the egg avatar is that you seem to be an Anonymous entity — most likely closely connected to the political sphere because you have a bullet list of talking points.
And breitbartunmasked.com has no obligation to write a follow up, we’re a blog, not a newspaper. We don’t update every news story with new details as they emerge unless we’re planning ongoing covereage.
If you want us to continue to report on this story, you probably won’t be happy with the level of digging we involve ourselves in, lol. I would probalby start with the people who have been spamming these articles here and on fitnews to find out the relationships
But there are more important stories. How about this? I promise we’ll update when his next court appearance happens. And I will make sure to do some independent digging of my own. 🙂
I’ve chosen to be somewhat anonymous after someone tracked me down and began sending me unwelcome personal messages. They simply couldn’t refute my logic so chose ad hominem attacks. I have no political connections, heck I don’t even have any friends. (I do have a rather warped sense of humor of which that is an example.)
I apologize for thinking your byline was a pseudonym. I misread the Hypatia portion and assumed you were having a little joke. I look forward to reading more about Hypatia. A very interesting person in history. (OK, I’m thinking woman, but I’m trying to be PC.)
As for talking points, they aren’t. I come up with this stuff all by myself. But if I’m good enough to fool you maybe I should consider offering my services to those in need. I simply think through what I read and make logical observations.
I agree that breitbartunmasked has no obligation to the truth since it is merely a blog not a news site (if there are any sites that merely report the news without bias). I doubt that “the level of digging” you do is for the truth but hey surprise me.
I’m confused if this site has no obligation to post a follow up since you are a blog not a newspaper (I’m pretty sure newspapers don’t have an obligation either but heck I haven’t worked on a newspaper in years.) but you post news stories and do ongoing coverage of some of these news stories; then what is a newspaper? Isn’t it something that publishes news and ongoing coverage just like this site? Based on what I’ve seen here I’d classify breitbartunmasked as a news site. Although I’m guessing you’d classify it as an opinion site dedicated to smearing anyone Breitbart would praise and supporting anyone BB would report negatively on. Ooops, that thought just slipped out. I meant: You’d classify breitbartunmasked as an opinion site. But if it is an opinion site why are you reporting news and not analysing it?
As for “spamming these articles … to find out the relationships” I was simply pointing out that any blogger dedicated to the truth would have done a little more digging and a lot less trying to smear those associated with Josh. By including those that Josh endorses I am guessing that you are trying to get your readers to look unfavorably on them even though it is unlikely that they would defend Josh’s actions if the accusations prove true.
The questions I asked were simple, relatively public information type questions. I suppose you think the cop in Ferguson is guilty as charged by the media without even hearing his side of the story. I’ll bet you thought Rodney King was a saint before we saw the entire video.
I’m not trying to spam anyone. I’m trying to point out that if you are going to put yourself forward as an authority on a subject that you should probably at least publish both sides of a story and stick to the story and not use it to try to smear those you oppose.
And if there are “more important stories” why did you waste time on this one to begin with? Was it because you could smear candidates you don’t like? If it was important enough to report the accusation isn’t it important enough to report the outcome? I look forward to your follow up.
PS – Maybe you could explain to me how Drudge simply reporting the Monica Lewinsky story is cyberbullying. If it is, then you are guilty of cyberbullying of Josh Kimbrell.
Well, nobody is going to hunt you down. I’m under no obligation to “report the truth” — well, I will wait until his court appearance to judge what the truth is. As it stands, the man has been charged . That was the story.
Has he NOT been charged?
I didn’t say that Drudge cyberbullied Monica Lewinsky, and that’s not a position I would take, so I am not going to write about that. You can say I am bullying a public figure, if you want, but that would be a bit silly since I have not name-called him or even claimed he is guilty.
Unless that has changed, and you are saying he has been judged not guilty by a jury of his peers?
If you feel so strongly about these matters, I highly encourage you to start your own blog. You can blog under a pen name, and you’ll probably make a lot of like-minded friends. But as it stands, we choose our stories and when we want to follow up, that’s our choice here. Not yours. Although I do appreciate your reading this article. 🙂
ANYONE can go and press charges against ANYONE, you included! Even WITHOUT any shred of evidence! So, I don’t think I’d be saying he’s guilty just yet; if he is he needs to be UNDER the jail but if he is innocent; the accuser needs to be UNDER the jail! Too much of this junk happens in this wicked age; either way it’s a tragedy!
I don’t live in South Carolina, but in my state you have to file a police report. Then, if they think your charges have merit, they assign a detective or two. They interview witnesses and gather evidence. They take the evidence to the prosecutor who then decides whether or not to press charges based on the evidence. If the prosecutor decides to press chrges, they then arrest the person they’re charging.
Very few states allow citizens to directly press charges without thorough investigations and the prosecutor who tries the case getting involved with that decision.
I personally know of someone here in SC who went to a judge and pressed the judge to swear out a warrant for someone’s arrest and that if the judge didn’t do it he’d ‘take matters into his own hands’ so the judge did in fact issue it; when court time came the accuser was no where to be found; charges dropped so imagine that; it does happen! I hope there was some kind of evidence here before they thoroughly RUIN the life of someone; once this ‘bullet’ leaves the gun there’s NO returning it to the chamber if the guy is innocent.
If he is innocent, I hope he sues & wins. Making up an allegation of this sort is one of the worst smears anyone can make. The damage cannot be undone. We’ll hear what evidence there is soon, I suppose.
Care to update this story? Your appeal to authority at the end proved itself to be fallacious. You should publicly apologize for that remark: “Which doesn’t explain why a prosecutor would think there was enough evidence to press charges and hold Kimbrell in jail.”
http://www.wyff4.com/news/Sex-charge-against-Christian-radio-talk-host-dropped/31363082