Sen. Deon Tedder re-elected days after report confirms state investigating rape allegations
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - State Senator Deon Tedder, D-Charleston, won his Democratic primary days after the S.C. Attorney General’s Office lifted a key redaction in an incident report that identified him as the suspect in an rape.
Tedder, who denies the allegations, has not been arrested or charged.
This will be Tedder’s first full term in the Senate. He won a special election to fill the vacated seat of Marlon Kimpson.
WIS Investigates received the heavily-redacted report in November detailing an alleged sex crime that happened in Columbia. Tedder’s name was revealed as the suspect on the report only after Gray Television’s attorneys put pressure on the office for months.
Tedder was challenged in the primary against Kim Greene, a Charleston native. There is no Republican challenger in the general election for this race.
When the race was called by the Associated Press early in the night, Tedder received more than 80% of the vote. S.C. Senate District 42 has been held by the Democratic party for at least a decade.
The Attorney General’s Office provided a copy of the report with Tedder’s name unredacted on Friday.
According to the incident report, the woman said she was raped in April 2022 at 1105 Shop Road in Columbia, which Richland County property records show is The Row at Stadium off-campus townhomes.
WIS Investigates confirmed the Columbia Police Department, the Attorney General’s Office and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division are investigating the allegations in the incident report.
The incident report was initially reported in November by an online news outlet.
WIS Investigates reached out to Tedder for a comment.
He said in a statement, “These 2 year old allegations are not true. This rumor campaign against me started after I won the special election for state senate and now this comes out today, just days before the election, making it very clear that this is a politically-motivated hit job. Again, These allegations are not true, and it’s an insult to my family and I, and it’s a sad attempt at distracting the voters right before the election.”
He also said that he has not been interviewed in regards to this investigation.
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