Three men faced sex-crime and voyeurism charges Wednesday in connection with a 2018 assault in Charleston, South Carolina, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said. The case centers on a night in October 2018, when a 23-year-old woman was drunk, incapacitated and unable to protect herself, according to an arrest affidavit.
All three men entered the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston County.
The charges followed remarks U.S. Representative Nancy Mace made in a speech on the House floor last year, where she described the episode at length. The men are connected to those remarks. Brendan Patrick Bryant, 53, is Mace’s former fiancé. John Douglas Osborne, 46, and Eric Bernard Bowman, 46, are described as Bryant’s business associates.
What the Charges Say
Bryant faces a voyeurism charge. Osborne faces the most serious counts: first-degree assault and battery and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Bowman faces charges of voyeurism, obstruction of justice and publishing the name of a victim of criminal sexual conduct.
That last charge matters. Protections for victims’ identities exist so survivors aren’t punished a second time, through exposure, for coming forward. The allegation that a defendant published her name reaches well beyond the original assault.
The Night in Question
According to the arrest affidavit, the woman fell into a pool and later passed out on a couch. She lay there covering herself with a pillow after removing her wet clothes. Police described her as drunk and incapacitated, according to records.
The affidavit says Osborne performed sex acts on her while Bryant and Bowman watched. It says the men discussed who should assault her first, and photographed and recorded the assault.
These details describe an alleged assault on someone who couldn’t consent, with onlookers and a camera. The affidavit’s account remains an allegation at this stage. The information released with the charges doesn’t include any response from the three men.
Eight Years Later
The incident dates to October 2018. By calendar-year subtraction, that’s eight years before the charges were filed. The source material doesn’t explain what happened in the interim, or why arrests came only now, after a member of Congress described the episode publicly on the House floor.
The Washington Post’s morning briefing, The Seven, flagged the Mace story Thursday under the headline “Catch up quickly: Execution live stream; Nancy Mace; regrowing knees.” Its visible Ukraine item said Kyiv reported that the country’s access to Starlink had been restricted without warning.
Why This Matters:
Sexual assault cases often stall for years. Many never reach a courtroom. This one moved from a 2018 incident to criminal charges only after a public account on the House floor. That sequence raises a fair question about how many survivors without a platform wait indefinitely. The alleged recording of the assault, and the charge of publishing a victim’s name, point to harms that outlast the crime itself. They also show why laws on voyeurism, obstruction and victim confidentiality exist. Prosecutors now carry the burden of proving these allegations, and the men are entitled to defend themselves. The outcome will test whether the justice system can deliver accountability when evidence is old, the victim was incapacitated and the accused have connections to people in public life.
- nancy mace
- sex crimes
- voyeurism
- charleston
- south carolina
- brendan bryant
- john osborne
- eric bowman