Now-Lake City police chief may have tried to get charges against wife dismissed, SLED report shows; gun she was found with was his

LAKE CITY, S.C. (WBTW) — Recently hired Lake City Police Chief Patrick Miles tried to intervene and get charges against his wife dismissed after she was arrested on drug and gun charges in December, according to a Florence police lieutenant as part of a SLED investigative report.

News13 obtained a copy of the report from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The incident involving Miles’ wife, Alisa, happened on Dec. 26 while he was a major with the Lake City Police Department and before he was appointed chief in late March. He was placed on unpaid administrative leave after her arrest pending the outcome of the investigation.

SLED documents show that the investigation officially ran from Dec. 26 until March 1. However, a city spokesperson told News13 on Tuesday that Patrick was allowed to return to work on Jan. 24 after a SLED investigator informed administrator William Hall that 12th Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements had declined to prosecute the case based on the investigation’s findings.

According to the report from SLED, Patrick told investigators on Jan. 3 that his wife had become addicted to Adderall, which led her to using other illegal narcotics. He said that led him to place a GPS tracking device on her vehicle.

Alisa was arrested at 1:25 a.m. on Dec. 26 after officers were called to investigate suspicious people on Melrose Avenue. She was at the scene and carrying a handgun but did not have a concealed-weapon permit and was also found with drug paraphernalia and suspected methamphetamine, police said. She was charged with unlawful carrying of a pistol and manufacture and distribution of meth.

A couple of days before she was arrested, the report said Patrick used the GPS device to determine that Alisa was at a residence and then went there to look for her. He found her vehicle with “fresh damage” in the driveway with the window down, doors unlocked and her phone and purse inside.

The report said Patrick approached the house, which did not have a doorknob, knocked on the door and went inside to look for his wife after no one answered. He asked a man sitting in the living room about his wife’s whereabouts, but the man didn’t know anything. Patrick was not in uniform at the time.

Patrick then walked outside and called a wrecker for the vehicle, the report said. While he was waiting, another man came out and said Alisa was inside. The man gave Patrick a key to the vehicle and he drove away.

Patrick returned to the house a few nights later to look for his wife and talked to several residents through a screen window, the report said.

“Maj. Miles said his wife’s brother was in the military, and he was unsure what her brother might do to the people in the house if she was in there,” the report said. “Maj. Miles led the people in the house to believe people were looking for his wife. Maj. Miles said, ‘Yeah, I fed them some bull—- too. But I know how a meth head is, and if you tell them you’re being watched, they’ll be all over the place.’ They won’t mess with her, and that was my goal. Keep them from messing with her, and to let her know that I was serious about intervening in anything she done so she wouldn’t be able to get her hands on it.'”

In the SLED report, Alisa told investigators the gun she had when she was arrested belonged to her husband. Patrick acknowledged that he had given her the pistol in the past while she walked on their road in Scranton but said he did not know she had the gun with her when she was in Florence. The report also said Patrick knew that Alisa did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Minutes after her arrest, the report said Patrick called a Florence police lieutenant investigating his wife’s arrest and said she was “hemmed up in something” and wanted to know if he “could help him out with that.” The report said Patrick went on to say, “Is there anything you can do for me?” The report said the lieutenant believed that Patrick wanted the charges dismissed and that the lieutenant told him that was not possible at the time. The report says Patrick responded, “Alright, well, I, later down the road, what about that?”

Patrick also called Florence County Sheriff TJ Joye that night to ask about what had happened to his wife, the report said. Joye then asked a sergeant to call Florence police to find out more about the situation.

The sergeant told Joye that Alisa had been arrested on a gun charge and was being taken to jail, the report said. Joye, in turn, told Patrick there was nothing he could do for her. Joye also told investigators that he did not think Patrick was asking him for help getting any criminal charges dropped.

Earlier in the night, shortly before her arrest, the SLED report said Alisa told authorities that “my husband is the police and he’s down there messing with us.” Right after that, Alisa and two other people at the scene pointed down the street and said Patrick had just driven by. Alisa then said her husband was “crazy” and had “lost his mind.”

In a conversation with an officer a short time later, the report said Patrick “wound not confirm or deny if he had just left the area in a black truck, but said he was ‘outside’ Scranton,” where he lived.

Later in the night, after Alisa was told she was being arrested, the report said an officer talked to a nearby homeowner who said he had no idea why she was in the area.

Another man then came out of the house and told the officer that he was walking to a nearby convenience store at about 12:45 a.m. when Patrick drove up in Alisa’s vehicle, slammed on the brakes and reached behind his back, the report said. Thinking that he had a pistol, the report said the man pulled out a baton. The man told officers that he dropped his cellphone during the encounter and that Patrick picked it up before leaving.

Later, Patrick told a Florence police lieutenant about the encounter, saying he went there because someone had stolen his wife’s makeup bag with some money in it. He said the man pulled out a knife and that he picked up the phone after the man dropped it and ran away.

The report said Patrick told investigators that he met with his wife in a nearby parking lot and she told him she could return the phone and get her property back. The report said police arrived before Alisa could meet with the two men.

News13 reached out to a city official on Tuesday and Wednesday for a response to the newly released information and Chief Miles’ involvement in the case. News13 also called and left a message for Chief Miles Wednesday morning. As of 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, we have not received a comment from any city official regarding the details of the SLED report.

News13 also spoke with Solicitor Clements on Tuesday and Wednesday to ask for his reasoning behind the decision not to prosecute Chief Miles. He said he was out of the office and hadn’t been able to look back at the case details yet.

Patrick has worked for the Lake City Police Department since 2006, but he was not the city’s first choice when he was hired as chief in March to replace Jody Cooper, who resigned from the positions of police chief and deputy city administrator in October, ending his second stint as chief since 2016.

City officials announced on Feb. 23 that Emmanuel Williams had been chosen as the new chief. However, he withdrew after News13 learned three days after the announcement of his hiring that he had been fired from the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office in 2015 over an undisclosed policy violation.

Media coverage prompted Lake City officials to conduct a news conference in which Mayor Yamekia Robinson acknowledged that Williams’ hiring was announced before the completion of a background check and led to Patrick getting the police chief’s job.

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Dennis Bright is a Digital Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.

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