Gov. McMaster removes SC mayor from office for domestic violence

John Kay Hansen, the mayor of Ware Shoals in the Upstate, was dismissed from his job Friday. Governor Henry McMaster took Hansen out of office after the former mayor pleaded guilty to third degree domestic violence ... Hansen was elected in 2012 and again in 2016 as mayor of Ware Shoals which is in Abbeville, Greenwood, and Laurens counties.

In Sept. 2016, Hansen pushed his then wife against a wall and onto a bed where they struggled over her cell phone ... He was arrested in Dec. 2016. Hansen pleaded guilty on June 7 to domestic violence in a deal with prosecution. A judge sentenced Hansen to 90 days in jail but reduced that sentence to one night imprisonment ... Hansen was also ordered to undergo anger management counseling. He is on probation for a year and has a restraining order that bars him from being near his wife

Hansen was also arrested for domestic violence stemming from a July 2015 attack. The arrest warrant says Hansen pushed a woman against the wall, pulled her hair, painted her face with house paint, and spit in her face.

The state constitution allows the governor of South Carolina to remove “any officer of the State or its political subdivsions” if they are indicted by a grand jury for crimes involving “moral turpitude.” If a political office holder is convicted of a crime the governor then declares the convicted person’s political position vacant.

In 2017, South Carolina ranked in the top five of states for the number of women killed by men.

https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article216102160.html