Senator Deon Tedder wins Democratic primary after report confirms state is investigating rape allegations

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – State Senator Deon Tedder (D-Charleston) won his Democratic primary after the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office overturned a key omission in an incident report identifying him as a rape suspect.

Tedder was neither arrested nor charged.

WIS Investigates obtained the heavily redacted report on an alleged sex crime in Columbia in November. Tedder’s name was not included in the report as a suspect until after Gray Television’s lawyers pressured the office for months.

Tedder was challenged in the primary by Kim Greene, a Charleston native. The race was called off by the Associated Press earlier in the evening because Tedder had a significant lead.

At around 8:45 p.m., Tedder received more than 80% of the vote. South Carolina’s 42nd Senate District has been held by the Democratic Party for at least a decade.

The attorney general’s office released a copy of the report on Friday, with Tedder’s name unredacted.

The new senator, who ran for re-election in March, denies the allegations in the incident report.

According to the incident report, the woman said she was raped in April 2022 at 1105 Shop Road in Columbia, which Richland County land records identify as The Row at Stadium townhouses off campus.

WIS Investigates confirmed that Columbia Police, the Attorney General’s Office and the South Carolina Division of Law Enforcement are investigating the allegations in the incident report.

The incident was first reported by an online news channel in November.

WIS Investigates has contacted Tedder for comment.

In a statement, he said: “These two-year-old allegations are not true. This rumor campaign against me began after I won the special election for State Senate, and now it is coming to light today, just days before the election, making it very clear that this is a politically motivated assassination. Again, these allegations are not true, and it is an insult to my family and me, and a sad attempt to distract voters just before the election.”

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