Former SC Juvenile Justice director Freddie Pough lands job at state police

After resigning from the Department of Juvenile Justice, the agency’s former director Freddie Pough was hired at South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division.

Pough is expected to return to SLED Nov. 2, state police spokesman Tommy Crosby said.

Pough was hired as a senior special agent assigned to investigative services, Crosby said. That means he will “primarily perform background investigations.”

The new job marks Pough’s return to the agency he worked for before serving as director of the Department of Juvenile Justice. Pough worked as an investigator at SLED for more than eight years before becoming the inspector general at DJJ, and later, the director.

Pough’s last position at SLED was a lieutenant in the Midlands Region of SLED’s Investigative Services Department, Crosby said.

Pough tendered his resignation at the Department of Juvenile Justice in late September, bringing an end to his tumultuous tenure. Pough’s departure came after lawmakers called for him to resign over an audit that identified widespread staffing, training and security problems at the agency.

Pough said the report cast an incomplete and inaccurate picture of the agency.

The South Carolina Senate also issued a vote of no confidence in Pough earlier this year. And over the summer, dozens of corrections officers and staff walked off the job protesting low pay and poor working conditions.

Eden Hendrick, a former prosecutor who most recently worked for the Department of Administration, was named Juvenile Justice’s acting director following Pough’s departure. She presented a panel of Senate lawmakers with her plans for reforming the department earlier this week.