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This -- she pleaded guilty after manipulating the system to get in front of Judge Kinard instead of being in front of Judge Eppes earlier. She was supposed to go in front of Judge Eppes who had originally put her on probation for the Salvation Army scandal. When she found Judge Eppes was on the bench, she decided to plead not guilty in order to get a trial.

After Judge Eppes rotated off the bench, then she changed and decided she would plead guilty and she did so in Judge Baggett's courtroom. And he referred to her as a hardened criminal, who had lived for years off of other people's money, the system had been extremely kind to her. He made all these references, but then refused to take any -- any -- to this woman who has been on probation most of her adult life, probation to this woman is interpreted as the court's authority to steal some more. Probation does not deter this woman and after 16 convictions, these judges should recognize that fact.
Q. Could you tell the members of this committee what the medical evidence was that Judge Baggett had before him at this point?
A. He had a letter, whether it was -- whether or not it was signed -- someone -- someone in the court told me the letter was not signed, from a doctor, who said supposedly that Julie Redick has a heart condition. And that going to jail maybe derogatory to her health.
Q. What was the prognosis in that --
A. She has a heart condition.
Q. And what would need to be done for her?
A. Well, supposedly she claims that she is on a transplant list, but nobody has ever been able to document that she is actually that seriously ill. They never have asked for documentation.

He asked for documentation from the defense without -- he had someone from the bank called into verify the -- the records of this CD, he asked the prosecutors to verify everything they did, basically, but he never asked the doctor to be called in or any -- any backup documentation of this letter, how authentic it was, how seriously ill the woman was or how

The SLED officer who was there thought he had given enough information to the Solicitor's office to get a conviction, but it didn't happen.
Q. And do you recall specifically whether or not the court was made aware that she was already on probation?
A. Yes, sir. It came out. There was -- the best of my knowledge, there -- her record was -- was presented and discussed during the court hearing about her different convictions and how many times she had been convicted of different things and Fran Humphries the solicitor, he -- to the best of my knowledge, he brought all of this in the courtroom.
Q. And correct me if I'm wrong, but you previously stated that she had used these medical reasons before?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How do you know that she did that?
A. The transcript from the hearing with the Salvation Army.
Q. Do you recall --
A. And it was --
Q. -- essentially what she --
A. In the Salvation Army hearing, she asked for the judge to be lenient with her because she had thought that she was dying and that she was -- wanted to give her son a lot of things that he would never be able to have because she may die and leave him, and so she stole money to buy him cars or whatever else he wanted.

I started calling USC on a regular basis and then Ms. Johnson's attorney called me because the same thing was happening in her mother's estate and they called me and asked me for my information on this thing and then -- and then it turned out that Julie Redick was the one in both instances who was stealing money from the two estates.
Q. Well, how did you learn of it at first if this problem at the University of South Carolina was about to present itself?
A. The week that Ray died, his niece called me. They were still in Columbia and the personal representative, or the to-be-appointed personal representative was Louis Demos. Louis Demos had told Ray's family that he was going to move in Ray's house and live there until the estate was settled. And they were extremely distraught.

They called me wanting to know what -- is there anything we can do. Ray's family -- Ray's family is -- they're from New York. They're not really educated people. And they had no earthly idea what was going on, so I called Louis Demos and asked him and he told me at that time that he was going to move in the house supposedly to protect it.

I said that's not necessary, there is a security system on the house, there is no reason. It's tied in with the security patrol. There is no reason for you to live in the house. He said, "Well" -- he said, "It's cheaper insurance because a nonoccupied dwelling, the insurance almost doubles." I said, "You can also get rental insurance or you can get other insurance that is not quite that expensive." I said, "But even if we have to increase the insurance, that's less expensive than the estate supporting you while you live in Ray's house." So then he says, "Well, you may not like it, but there is nothing you can do about it."

That was his -- so then I called the University of South Carolina and told them what was happening and that is when -- when I came --
Q. How did Louis Demos know to call you? Why --
A. He did not call me. I called him.

We don't because of the fact that we could go back and forth forever, we don't ask the witness to come back up. We do leave the record open, however, in the event you have additional details you would like for us to look at. And I would ask you if you do come upon information you think is relevant to either one of the cases that please forward it to Ms. McNamee or to the Screening Committee and we will consider that.

We do -- we leave the record open for the purpose, but what we'll do at this time is ask Judge Baggett to step forward and to take the witness chair and to respond to your testimony. When we screen Judge Kinard, we'll ask him to respond to the allegations as well in that.
A. Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. Judge Baggett.
JUDGE BAGGETT: Yes, sir.

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