Documents detail history of alleged harassment by cross burning suspects

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) - Recently filed court documents detail a history of alleged harassment by two people accused of burning a cross facing their Black neighbors in the Conway area.

A memo was filed ing a temporary injunction against Worden Butler and Alexis Hartnett was filed on March 6 by James Battle, a special prosecutor from the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. Prosecutors argue the home on Corbett Drive has become a nuisance and should be shut down for a year.

“Since at least 2021, Respondents Worden and Alexis have used their house as a center for harassing, assaulting, and threatening their neighbors and people in the areas surrounding their house,” the memo states.

CROSS BURNING INCIDENT

The filing also goes over the alleged cross-burning and events that led up to it involving Butler, Hartnett and their Black neighbors, Shawn and Monica Williams.

Battle wrote that the cross-burning incident happened on Nov. 24, 2023, when the Williams had family at their home for Thanksgiving weekend.

Footage taken by Monica Williams shows a cross being burned while facing their property on... — Footage taken by Monica Williams shows a cross being burned while facing their property on Nov. 23, 2023.(Monica Williams)

It also provides screenshots of Facebook posts made by Butler before the incident. In addition to posting photos of the Williams home and their mailbox showing their street number, he posted other things including:

“They come on holidays to start a fight with me.”
“Well I’m working on summoning a devil’s army and I don’t care if they and I both go down in the same boat.”
“I’m about to make them pay.”
“Going to give my racist neighbors who don’t live here and you’ve been harassing me for three years a good scare for their health.”
“With a cross in the lawn.”

In affidavits, both Shawn and Monica Williams said everything started with a dispute over their property line. After putting up a fence and fixing a water line, documents claim Butler and Hartnett “responded with even more aggressive and racist behavior.”

Hartnett is also accused of calling them racial slurs in the days leading up to the cross burning. Butler, meanwhile, is accused of tearing up property stakes to the point where a fencing contractor had to call police while he fixed a water pipe. Butler is also accused of using a crossbow as an intimidation tactic.

Prosecutors also provided aerial photos of the property, showing trenches that were allegedly dug by Butler that were “five feet deep or more and five feet wide.”

A trench was also dug along the Williams property line, but Butler claimed it was for fish.

“However, the trenches and condition of the yard coupled with Respondents Worden and Alexis’s erratic and threatening behavior augments the fearful atmosphere they have created in the neighborhood. It further shows how Respondents Worden and Alexis use the property to carry out the nuisance activity,” court filings read.

CROSS BURNING AFTERMATH

The FBI and NAA have since been involved in the investigation of the cross burning. FBI agents searched the home in December and took several things from the property; including a charred piece of wood wrapped in cloth, a crossbow, a pellet gun and several phones. However, nothing recovered was considered illegal.

The FBI said it has not filed charges against Hartnett and Butler but is still investigating.

The incident also sparked renewed calls for South Carolina to a statewide hate crime law, as it remains one of two states without such a law. Some local municipalities in the state have since looked into possibly ing hate crime ordinances of their own.

OTHER NEIGHBORS SPEAK

Other neighbors in the area also accused Butler and Hartnett of similar behavior in affidavits presented in the new filing.

Two neighbors from across the street said they “repeatedly experienced” Butler and Hartnett screaming in their yard and the street. Hartnett was also accused by those neighbors of being naked in their front yard, destroying property on their porch and threatening to kill them.

Those same neighbors also said Butler allegedly dug next to their property line and put up a sign saying “Shot on Site” when they had a plumber at their house. He’s also accused of putting a dead deer head on a wooden pole in his front yard and blocking mailboxes in the neighborhood with plants.

"Shot on Site" Sign(15TH CIRCUIT SOLICITOR'S OFFICE)

Another neighbor said Hartnett went up to him and his wife as they left their house on Thanksgiving, claiming they “ruined the neighborhood” before spitting in their car.

A third affidavit from a neighbor claimed Worden threatened to kill the neighborhood mailman when it was explained the mailman could not accept a Priority Mail envelope.

Hartnett is also accused of threatening to kill a reporter with a machine gun last December and hit a second reporter with a water bottle.

Documents notably cite recent rulings on Myrtle Beach’s infamous “Yellow House” boarding home as legal standing ing an injunction against Butler and Hartnett.

WHAT’S NEXT

Butler and Hartnett are still due in court on March 20 regarding the temporary injunction request, which would remove them from the home they live in on Corbett Drive.

The pair rent the home from Butler’s mother - who filed a request to dismiss the injunction in February. Her filings claim boarding up the home for a year is not a solution but “an overreach of government.”

The filing ing the injunction came the same day Hartnett missed a court hearing for a second-degree harassment charge due to what a judge cited as medical issues. That rescheduled date has not been decided on, but Hartnett is due back in court on March 21 on a third-degree assault and battery charge.

Stay with WMBF News for updates.