Pre-trial motion in Stokes v. Oconee et al

An attorney for Oconee County asked a judge this afternoon to throw out the last remaining part of a lawsuit that has remained at pre-trial stage for seven years.  If Judge McIntosh grants the county’s motion, the case of a former department head and his allegations against the county and two county council members will end, at least at the circuit level.  David Stokes lost his job as building official in 2017 after, as Stokes has alleged, he balked at granting Edda Cammick a building permit for a carport on her property.  The one last legal ground in the case is the plaintiff’s allegation of wrongful termination.  Earlier Stokes’ companion allegation of slander was dismissed.  However, plaintiff’s attorney Hopkins argued a jury should be allowed to weigh evidence and return a verdict, and he cited what he believes is an applicable case involving Surfside Beach and a building official there who issued a stop-work order after she determined a building code violation.  Judge McIntosh listened to the arguments of plaintiff’s lawyer Hopkins and Stacey Todd Coffee, representing Oconee County, but said before he decides he wants to “look into the case.”  Plaintiff Stokes did not attend the motion hearing but Cammick, a co-defendant and now a Tennessee resident, sat in the courtroom and was seen conferring after the hearing with county attorney Coffee.