State Charges Men in Mace-Linked Sex Crimes Case

Three men connected to remarks U.S. Representative Nancy Mace made in a House speech faced sex-crime and voyeurism charges Wednesday over a 2018 incident, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said. Officers booked them into the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston County.

The charges stem from allegations involving three men associated with Mace’s former fiancé. An arrest affidavit describes a woman, then 23, as drunk and incapacitated during events in Charleston, S.C., in October 2018. It says she fell into a pool, later passed out on a couch, and covered herself with a pillow after taking off her wet clothes.

Charges and Allegations

Brendan Patrick Bryant, 53, Mace’s former fiancé, faced a voyeurism charge. John Douglas Osborne, 46, whom Mace called Bryant’s business associate in her House speech, faced charges of first-degree assault and battery and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Eric Bernard Bowman, 46, another business associate of Bryant, faced charges of voyeurism, obstruction of justice and publishing the name of a victim of criminal sexual conduct. According to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division report, authorities booked all three men at the same detention center in Charleston County.

The affidavit says Osborne performed sex acts on the woman while Bryant and Bowman watched. It also says the men discussed who should assault her first, then photographed and recorded the assault. Those are allegations in the affidavit accompanying the charges.

The woman’s condition and the circumstances described in the affidavit sit at the center of the allegations. She fell into a pool before passing out on a couch, the affidavit says. She’d taken off her wet clothes and lay with a pillow covering herself. Police records describe her as drunk and incapacitated.

Mace’s Speech and the Briefing

Last year, Mace described the episode at length in a speech on the House floor. The account identifies Bryant as her former fiancé and Osborne and Bowman as his business associates; it doesn’t describe financial interests or employment arrangements involving the men or the woman.

The Washington Post’s The Seven morning briefing, titled “Catch up quickly: Execution live stream; Nancy Mace; regrowing knees,” listed seven stories it called its most important and interesting. Its visible item about Ukraine said Kyiv reported that the country’s access to Starlink had been restricted without warning.

The briefing mention and the criminal charges appear in the same account, but the Ukraine item concerns Starlink access. The account doesn’t link that item to the charges. It identifies the charges, the men’s relationships to Mace and Bryant, and the affidavit’s allegations; it offers no response from the charged men or further details about the case.