A former North Augusta High School resource officer was arrested Friday after a year-long investigation into his relationship with a female student.
Christopher Ryan Wilson, 23, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He has been released on a personal recognizance bond.
The arresting agency was the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), which has been reviewing the case for the last year while conducting interviews with multiple people. They sent a report to Solicitor Bill Week’s office, who recommended the misdemeanor charge to SLED after talking to attorneys for both the lawyer and young woman. SLED accepted the recommendation and made the arrest Friday.
Wilson was not charged with any sex crime despite allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with the 17-year-old female student in a vehicle. He was also accused of supplying alcohol to the teen and a credit card that she used to buy herself things.
As part of the compromise on the misdemeanor charge, Wilson’s attorney offered an affidavit pledging that Wilson would never seek employment as a law enforcement officer in the future, according to Weeks.
Background of investigation. Three juvenile female students approached NAHS staff in December 2022 with “concerns that Officer Christopher Wilson may have had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female student,” according to a NADPS report. The students also accused the officer of allowing the same student to use his credit card to purchase items, the report says.
The North Augusta Department of Public Safety reacted to the accusations against their officer by sending their criminal investigation unit to the school, where they met with staff and received written statements from the three students. One of the students said her friend was “touched inappropriately” by Officer Wilson, the report says.
The rookie officer was suspended immediately. He resigned three days later. He had worked for the agency since Feb. 2, 2022. A day after his resignation, then-NADPS Director John Thomas asked the SLED to investigate potential criminal actions by the officer.
“The potential allegations are criminal sexual conduct and supplying alcohol to a minor,” SLED spokeswoman Renée Wunderlich said last year.
The arrest. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is classified as a Class A misdemeanor in South Carolina. If convicted, a person faces a fine of up to $3,000 or up to three years in jail or both. However, the judge has the final say as to what the specific sentence will be.
Solicitor Weeks said last month that his office was reviewing the case and saw mitigating circumstances, since the age difference between Wilson and the girl was not great. The officer was 22 at the time of the alleged relationship with the 17-year-old student, who is now in college. Plus, Wilson had only worked for the public safety department for less than a year and had no prior record.
