SC cross-burning suspect arrested on obscenity charge, placed on home detention

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A suspect accused of taking part in a November cross-burning from the backyard of her Horry County property is facing a new obscenity charge that will keep her on home detention.

Alexis Hartnett, 27, was issued a $10,000 bond and handed a no-contact order by Judge Bradley D. Mayers on Sunday following an indecent exposure arrest.

Details of the incident weren’t disclosed in court, but officials said the victim was a man with two small children. It reportedly happened on March 2 but wasn’t reported to police until Friday.

Hartnett was arrested on Sunday, according to court records. Her bond hearing was held at 2 p.m. at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center.

‘Center for harassing:’ County says SC couple accused of cross-burning are chronic safety threat

Hartnett was compliant and referred to the judge as “sir” several times during the proceedings.

Hartnett and her boyfriend Worden Butler, who are white, are each facing a second-degree harassment charge stemming from the Thanksgiving weekend cross-burning that garnered national attention and renewed calls for a statewide hate crimes bill.

The couple allegedly lit a cross on fire and pointed it in the direction of their black neighbors, a couple who split their time between Charlotte and Myrtle Beach.

Sister station News13 has been covering the case for months and on Saturday was first to report new claims by county prosecutors that the 1400 Corbett Drive home occupied by Butler and Hartnett has been a “center for harrassing” for years.

15th Circuit Court Solicitor Jimmy Richardson is asking a judge to evict the pair — but a court date for that hearing hasn’t been set.

Hartnett is expected back in court later this month to answer for the harassment charge. Butler has requested a jury trial in his case.

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