Anderson County Sheriff's Office is selling the boat tied to Deputy Devin Hodges' death

Anderson Independent Mail

This boat is the one that Devin Hodges, a deputy with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office, was ejected from June 1 when he suffered fatal injuries during a training exercise on Lake Hartwell.

The Anderson County Sheriff's Office is selling the boat that Deputy Devin Hodges was ejected from when he was killed during a training exercise on Lake Hartwell.

Sheriff Chad McBride said Thursday that after talking to his officers who do water patrols, he learned that they thought it would be too emotionally difficult for them to get back on the 19-foot Pioneer boat.

Until recently the boat was kept by the state Department of Natural Resources, the agency that investigates deaths on state waters.

The squad car of Deputy Devin Hodges, his photo, a flag and a Bible, were put at the Anderson County Sheriff's Office during a public memorial last June. Hodges, who did road patrol and marine patrol, was fatally injured June 1 during a training exercise on Lake Hartwell.

"I got my team together and asked everybody how they felt, and they all said, 'I don't know that I'd get back on that boat again,'" McBride said. "So many people tried to save Devin that day, and it stayed with them."

Hodges, 30, was training on the lake June 1 with other Anderson County deputies and representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when he, Corps employee Joseph Fleming and Deputy Juvan Chau were thrown from the boat at Singing Pines Recreation Area in Starr.

More:Records: Equipment that might have saved Anderson County Deputy Devin Hodges wasn't used

Fleming, the instructor who was driving the boat that day, was showing the two deputies how to do an "emergency stop" when all three people went overboard, according to an investigative file obtained by the Independent Mail. Hodges' shirt got caught in the propeller of the boat, and he did not survive his injuries.

A kill switch and a related safety lanyard, which are meant to stop a boat's motor when a boater goes overboard unexpectedly, were not used when Hodges was injured, according to records from the Department of Natural Resources. The records were released to the Independent Mail in response to a Freedom of Information request.

"The morning of the accident, and prior to performing the 'emergency stop' procedure, Mr. Fleming neither looked at, discussed, nor attached the safety lanyard on the ACSO boat," investigators wrote in the file.

Fleming was charged Aug. 4 with reckless homicide by boat, but the charge was dropped after Rick Hubbard, the 11th Judicial Circuit solicitor from Lexington County, determined state law "limits the extent to which states may impose criminal liabilities on federal officials or employees for alleged violations of state law committed in the course of their federal duties."

The Department of Natural Resources has offered to pay the Sheriff's Office $13,000 for the boat. Anderson County officials want to put the boat on GovDeals, an auction website where government property and unclaimed items are sold, in hopes of getting more money for it.

"It kind of brings some hardship for officers who worked with (Hodges) to turn around and go back... on this same boat," County Councilman Ray Graham, a member of the public safety committee, said this week.

County Administrator Rusty Burns said Thursday that the boat's decals are being removed and the vessel will likely be put on the auction block next week. The boat will have a reserve price that is just over what the Department of Natural Resources has offered, and if that price isn't reached the agency will buy the vessel.

Graham said during an Anderson County Council meeting that proceeds from the sale will go toward a new boat. He said the Sheriff's Office has also sold a pair of jet skis to help pay for the new boat and may be able to use drug-seizure money to help offset the cost.

Nikki Carson, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said Thursday that the agency won't know where all the new boat money is coming from until officers know "the bottom-line price" of a replacement vessel.

Councilman Tom Allen said Tuesday night during a council discussion that he would vote against replacing the boat if the only reason for getting rid of it was that officers were "too traumatized" to use it.

"I'll be the bad guy," Allen said, according to a recording of the meeting.

Allen said he wondered if the Sheriff's Office would seek another replacement vessel if officers get on the new boat and "somebody cuts their finger."

Council Chairman Tommy Dunn warned Allen about making a comparison between a minor injury and an officer's death.

"I'd be very careful there," Dunn said.

Later that evening, Allen apologized.

"I was not belittling that terrible accident," he said.

Follow Nikie Mayo on Twitter or email her at mayon@independentmail.com