Lake Murray, SC 03/12/2022 (Paul Kirby) – According to public records obtained by The Lexington Ledger, John Daniel “Dan” Adams, was arrested by officers with the SC Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) on suspicion that he was Boating Under the Influence on the waters of Lake Murray in August. He is listed as Dominion’s senior lake management representative for Lake Murray, Lake Monticello, and the Parr Shoals Reservoir. His current employment status is unknown, and a spokesperson for Dominion Energy SC told another SC media source in August that they would not discuss personnel matters with the press.
According to the narratives of reports from the incident by several DNR law enforcement officers involved, this occurred shortly after 4:00 p.m. on August 6, 2022. The officers say they received a tip from a Richland County Marine Patrol officer that a possible intoxicated boater was operating in the area. The DNR officers quickly located the boat in question and stopped it. The officers then pulled up to the vessel and asked the operator for identification. Adams gave them his SC driver’s license which positively identified him as John Daniel Adams.
The two officers on the DNR boat asked Adams to show them his boating safety devices. To do this simple task, Adams had to hold fixed objects on the boat in order to support and steady himself. The officer’s reports also said he could not complete simple request that they asked of him. They also noticed the odor of alcohol coming from Adam’s person and breath. At this point in the stop, the officers stated that Adams told them he manages the lake for Dominion. He then took out his mobile phone and began trying to get someone from both DNR and Dominion on the phone. In the initial encouner, one of the DNR officers asked Adams how much alcohol he had consumed. He answered by saying he had two beers.
One of the officers asked Adams to put on a personal floatation device (PFD) and transfer from his boat to theirs’ so that they could conduct a field sobriety test. They did this because at that point they had reasonable suspicion that Adams was intoxicated. According to the officers, Adams ignored this command and continued to make phone calls. Eventually, Adams did comply but grabbed a youth sized PFD and attempted to buckle that. At some point he did stop trying to fasten the smaller PFD and grabbed an adult sized one. He was told not to transfer boats without fastening the adult PFD but did so anyway. Once on the boat with the DNR officers, one of them helped fastened Adams’ PFD for him, led him to a stable part of the boat and had him sit down. Because a storm appeared to be brewing on the horizon, the officers decided to transfer Adams to their office on Like Murray to perform a Field Sobriety test. During the trip back to the dock, Adams continued to make calls on his phone. Eventually he did connect with someone and said, “Hey, get Hunter or someone, a board member or someone from DNR on the on the phone and make this stop now.” Since Adams was using the speaker on his phone, the DNR officers could hear the person on the other end of the conversation tell Adams he needed to listen to the officers and there was nothing that he could do to help him.
Adams continued to act in a belligerent manner to the officers and failed to follow other simple commands. After failing the standard field sobriety test back at the DNR dock, Adams was placed under arrest for Boating Under the Influence. He was handcuffed and placed in the DNR officer’s vehicle. He immediately began to complain about having his hands cuffed behind his back. At one point he told the officer he would bust out his windshield if he did not release him from the cuffs. He left a footprint and grass on the truck’s dash where he had placed his foot during transport. He also told the DNR officer that, “If you don’t let me out of these handcuffs, I’m going to get violent.” He continued by saying, “I gave y’all a $150,000 grant for a sonar to find dead people on this lake,” something that Dominion Energy SC as a corporation had done in the last year.
Eventually, after the officer had stopped and added a second pair of cuffs to Adams to make him more comfortable, they arrived at a local detention center. Adams was given the opportunity to provide a breath test to measure the amount of alcohol in his blood, but he refused to provide the sample. He was booked for Boating Under the Influence, 1st and ticketed for not having a sound device (horn) and a Type IV throwable safety float.
Adams has a previous record of issues with alcohol. In August of 2021, he was charged with and found guilty of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and using an altered license or identification card that was not his. As far back as 2004, he was stopped by a state trooper and pled guilty to DUI, 2nd offense. His record of the 1st offense is not showing on his SLED record. This could indicate that that happened in another state. He was also ticketed by the City of Columbia Police Department in 2011 for having an open container in his vehicle and driving with an expired license. The disposition of that case is not known. He has retained the services of an attorney in this latest case.
All of this information is availabel to the public by state law. All supects are pressumed imocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
PHOTO: John Daniel "Dan Adams"
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