By Katie Kamin
Published: Jun. 24, 2024 at 5:55 PM EDT|Updated: Jun. 24, 2024 at 7:01 PM EDT
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - This week will be the last an embattled Lowcountry judge will spend on the bench before his term ends and he vacates the seat indefinitely.
Bentley Price’s last court term began Monday and will end later in the week. This comes after the South Carolina Bar Association found Price unqualified for the bench in Oct. 2023 and after the South Carolina Judicial Merit Selection Commission failed to get enough votes to nominate him for reelection.
Live 5 Investigates has brought you stories of Price and the accusations victims’ families, local organizations and attorneys have made against him during his time as a circuit court judge. Now, as his time on the bench wraps up, victims’ families say they feel future proceedings will be handled more justly and defendants will truly be held accountable.
A heartbroken sister
It was 2020 when Heath Watkins and his roommate Stephen Rivers were driving in Goose Creek. The two began to argue, and the disagreement spilled out of the truck to the side of the road, court documents show until Heath Watkins turned to walk away.
“He was shot in the back while he was walking back to his truck,” Heath Watkins’ sister Holly Watkins says. “It’s probably the most cowardly way that somebody could be murdered.”
Rivers was out on bond before the family could have a funeral, Holly Watkins says, and in the years since, she was forced to navigate the judicial system amid COVID-19, showing up for hearing after hearing until Rivers pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in Sept. 2023. As part of the deal with prosecutors, his weapons possession charge was dismissed.
“I promised my brother I’d get justice for him, and I fought and fought and fought,” Watkins says. “I’ve been at every hearing, spoke whenever they would let me speak, and every door has been closed in my face.”
Price was tasked with sentencing, and he initially gave Rivers a suspended sentence of 11 years with credit for about a year and a half that Rivers spent in jail before the trial.
Later, at the request of the defense, Price reconsidered the sentence, dropping that to a suspended sentence of seven years with credit for the time Rivers spent in jail, as well as when he was out on an ankle monitor.
While prosecutors argued Rivers should not get credit for the time with a GPS tracker because he violated his bond, Price once again sided with the defense, effectively allowing Rivers to spend less than three years in prison.
“How many people do you have to murder before you’re considered a murderer?” Holly Watkins says. “My brother is gone forever. [Rivers] took that from my brother. In 2 years and seven months, he gets to resume his life like nothing ever happened. My brother’s life was worth more than that.”
For Watkins, her peace is worth more too. She’s relieved for others that Price will no longer be presiding over cases, but the impact of his decisions extends beyond his tenure, she says.
“He was able to make decisions and to ruin people’s lives and to put them through torture,” Holly Watkins says. “You can’t heal; you can’t grieve the loss of your loved one.”
A grieving mother and a mourning wife
Holly Watkins is not the first person to complain about Price’s decisions on the bench and his actions in the courtroom.
Andrea Manigault and Rhonda Fordham, too, are connected by their loss, by gun violence and by Price.
“You can’t bring back my son, but the one thing that [Price] can do is deliver justice for us, and [he] flat out refused to do that,” Manigault says.
Live 5 Investigates shared Manigault’s story last fall. Her son Marion Grice was shot dead getting a snack at a convenience store in North Charleston in 2021.
Two men, Keano Simmons and Dartez Ferguson, are charged with Grice’s murder. Both were out on bond for other violent crimes at the time when documents say Simmons pulled the trigger and Ferguson drove the getaway car.
“[Price] failed to take Ferguson off the street, and as a result, my son is no longer here,” Manigault says.
After the murder—with a rap sheet packed with violent convictions and pending charges— Price granted Ferguson bond. Later when prosecutors tried to get his bond revoked for violating that bond hundreds of times, Price bowed to pressure from Ferguson’s attorney, State Representative Leon Stavrinakis, and still allowed Ferguson to remain out.
“I didn’t want Judge Price to do any favors for me,” Manigault says. “I just wanted him to do his job.”
Fordham also implored Price to do his job while presiding over her husband’s case. Eugune Fordham was gunned down as he answered the door in 2019, authorities say. A sibling duo pleaded guilty in the case: Antwon Gregg for murder and Andrea Gregg for being an accessory.
When it came time for a sentencing, a different judge sent Antwon Gregg to prison for 15 years, but Price suspended Andrea Gregg’s sentence to two years of probation and no prison time.
“That moment took the air out of my chest,” Rhonda Fordham says. “If we as people can’t be held accountable for the heinous crimes that we do, then what’s the purpose of a judicial system?”
Fordham and Manigault share parallel experiences in Price’s courtroom.
“[He has a] lack of compassion for the victims,” Rhonda Fordham says.
Price’s opinions were clear, according to Manigault.
“The message I got from that was, ‘I don’t care about you, your family or your community,” she says.
As Price is closing out his term, Manigault is relieved.
“Me and my children are sleeping so much better knowing we don’t have to fight the judge too,” she says. “It’s hard enough fighting in the courts.”
While Rhonda Fordham is appreciative Price’s time as a judge is dwindling, it’s too late for that to impact her husband’s case.
“I’m sorry it didn’t benefit me in Eugene’s case, but I’m grateful he won’t be able to make somebody else feel the way that he made me feel,” she says.
Ultimately all three women—Rhonda Fordham, Holly Watkins and Manigault, all connected by the courtroom—agree Price’s departure from the bench is a positive.
“This was a long time coming,” Manigault says.
A response from Price’s allies
P[rice and his staff have not yet responded to a request for comment or interview.
In a previous interview in Nov. 2023, Shaun Kent, a defense attorney and longtime friend of Price, says the 9th Circuit and the Lowcountry will suffer without Price serving as a judge.
“The guy is one of the hardest-working judges they’ve ever had,” Kent said. “He’ll work late; he’ll come in early. The reason there can be such negative press about a guy like Judge Price is he takes all the arrows, and he’s not afraid to make the tough decisions.”
Court records show Price’s last term of court ends June 28.
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