A Pee Dee police chief's wife was arrested on drug and gun charges. Then he started making calls. (2024)

FLORENCE — Then-Lake City police Maj. Patrick Miles called a Florence police officer and asked if the officer could “help him out with that”after the major's wife was arrested on weapon and drug charges.

This from a recently released report by the State Law Enforcement Division that sheds new light on where Patrick Miles was and what he did the night of Dec. 26 when his wife was arrested.

Florence police officers arrested Alisa Miles on Dec. 26. She is charged with unlawful carry of a pistol and distribution of methamphetamine.

SLED wascalled to investigate Patrick Milesregarding accusations of official misconduct, as well as possible weapon and drug violations.

Miles was placed on administrative leave Dec. 29 but was reinstated after SLED's investigation concluded.

Since then,Miles has been promotedto Lake City police chief.He served with the department for 18 years before becoming its chief in March at theend of a searchthat saw the candidate selected before himdrop out after receiving the job offer.

The arrest

Patrick Miles said his wife became addicted to Adderall, which led her to using other illegal narcotics. He placed a GPS device in her car and used it multiple times to help him find Alisa Miles in Florence, according to the report.

On Dec. 23, he went to the house the GPS showed his wife frequented and told the residents it was surrounded by gang members until he found his wife, according to a resident of the house interviewed for the report.

That same resident said she saw a Black man she didn’t recognize pull a black mask over his head and walk past her window.

Patrick Miles kept asking the residents in the house where his wife was and said “the people out here ain’t good” and that he was “tight” with the “349 crew,” according to the report.

He allegedly said “they” would drag his wife out of the house.

Those in the house told Miles his wife wasn’t there. When the homeowner, Marshall Kendall, asked, “Who you got on us,” Miles promised nobody.

Patrick Miles drove around Florence looking for his wife again on Dec. 25 when the GPS tracker placed her car at an office building. His wife wasn’t in her car, and he used it to drive to the house he visited days earlier, allegedly thinking she was there for drugs or infidelity.

On the way to the house, Patrick Miles saw his wife's friend Richard Feagin walking down Melrose Avenue. He stopped the car and approached Feagin. Feagin said Miles was clutching something behind his back, according to the report. Feagin thought Miles had a gun, according to the report.

In the report, Miles said Feagin pulled a knife but didn’t charge him. Miles later told authorities he just wanted to talk to Feagin.

Feagin left but dropped his cellphone. Miles picked it up.

Miles drove back to his truck and found Alisa Miles waiting there. She told Patrick Miles she had returned to the house to get her stolen property, according to the report.

She walked to the house to swap the phone for her makeup bag. Patrick Miles later told authorities the makeup bag had been stolen and had money in it.

Patrick Miles parked at a nearby fire station when she went to make the exchange. He said he “bumped” his lights to let any cameras know it was a police officer parked there. He said he does it anytime he pulls up somewhere.

Florence police Lt. Jon Watts, Sgt. Travis Scott, and officers Samuel Beasley and Robert McLaughlin responded to a call about “suspicious individuals in the roadway, using flashlights,” at 12:35 a.m. Dec. 26, according to the report.

The officers saw Alisa Miles with Brittany Mounts and Feagin, who all knew each other since they’d previously “chilled and talked” at Mounts’ house. Patrick Miles had gone to Mounts’ house multiple times in the weeks leading up to the arrest in search of his wife.

Alisa Miles texted her husband and said the police were probably there for her.

A dark pickup truck on a nearby street was moving in reverse, quickly, when the police arrived. Mounts and Feagin said the truck was being driven by Miles, who Alisa Miles told the police was her husband, according to the report.

She told the officers he was “crazy” and had “lost his mind,” according to the report.

She also said she had her husband's pistol, which police took from her. Patrick Miles called his wife during this time, but the conversation was unintelligible, according to the report.

Patrick Miles called again and identified himself but didn’t confirm or deny whether he had just left the area in a black truck. He said he was “outside” Scranton.

Patrick Miles and his wife continued to talk over each other on the phone as the officers worked.

“Beasley told Maj. Miles and Alisa Miles that their stories did not make sense,” according to the report.

Alisa Miles told her husband to call Florence County Sheriff TJ Joye, the report stated. Her husband said he could call Florence Police Chief Allen Heidler if needed.

Beasley said that would help, but the report said no calls were made at that time.

The two continued to talk to each other as Beasley used his radio.

Beasley informed Alisa Miles she was under arrest at 1:24 a.m. Dec. 26 and began putting her in handcuffs. While doing that, she bent over and a silver hand purse fell to the ground. It contained a substance suspected to be methamphetamine.

Beasley then put her in the back of his patrol car and took her to the Florence County Detention Center, where she admitted to using methamphetamine four hours prior.

Next, Patrick Miles called Joye, the Florence County sheriff.

Miles’ calls

Joye said he got a call from Patrick Miles at 1:30 a.m. and was asked if he could find out why Miles' wife was in the back of a police car.

Joye then called Florence County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Bradley Bazen, the supervisor on duty, and told him to find out what was happening.

Bazen told the sheriff that Alisa Miles was arrested on a gun charge and was on the way to the detention center, according to the report.

Joye called Patrick Miles and said there was nothing he could do.

Joye said he believed Miles didn’t call him to get help dropping any charges. When asked if getting any charges dropped were his intentions at any point, Joye responded: “Absolutely not.”

In the report, however, Bazen said the Florence police officer didn't tell him what charges Alisa Miles faced.

Joye called Bazen back at 1:55 a.m. and said Alissa Miles had been arrested and transported to jail. Bazen didn’t know how the sheriff got the information but knew he had access to dispatch information via cellphone.

The officer Bazen spoke to, officer Evan Reed, said Bazen requested the police “help her out with the charges,” according to the report. Reed told Watts, the police lieutenant, about the request.

A spokesman for the Florence County Sheriff’s Office said the “report makes it clear that Sheriff Joye did not intervene in the investigation and only inquired about the facts."

The spokesman declined to comment on Bazen's call to Reed.

Patrick Miles, meanwhile, called Watts at 1:43 a.m. Miles allegedly identified himself as being with the Lake City Police Department. He said people had stolen his wife’s makeup bag with some money in it but didn’t say where it happened. He said he was in Florence earlier that evening picking up stuff for his house.

Patrick Miles told Watts about his run-in with Feagin and how his wife said she’d return Feagin’s phone in exchange for her property, according to the report.

“She went over there to get it, and now she hemmed up on some stuff. Can you help me out?” Patrick Miles asked Watts, according to the report.

Watts said he couldn’t help because she was charged with unlawful carry and possession of methamphetamine. Patrick Miles said his wife “don’t do no needle stuff.”

“Is there anything you can do for me,” he asked, according to the report.

Watts said no, not tonight. When the major asked the officer about getting any help later, Watts said he was more than welcome to talk to Beasley, who arrested her.

Beasley left the detention center around 2:23 a.m. and received a request from dispatch to call Florence County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Joyner.

Watts then said to his shift over the radio no more calls would be made about the arrest and if the Sheriff’s Office needed any more information to call him, according to the report.

SLED agents briefed 12th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements on the investigation Jan. 19 and Feb. 29. Clements declined to prosecute the case based on the facts.

Clements did not respond to The Post and Courier's request for comment.

A spokesperson for the Florence Police Department had no comment on its involvement the night of Alisa Miles’ arrest.

A spokeswoman for Lake City said City Administrator William Hall requested a copy of the investigation but never received an answer. He also said he was told by an investigating agent that if the solicitor wasn’t going to pursue charges, then the investigation would be closed.