COCAINE USE WIDESPREAD, RAVENEL SAYS

Investigation into Ex-S.C. Treasurer's Habit

Transcripts Show Drug Was Common, Casually Used in Social Circles

Cocaine circulated so readily in Charleston's upper-crust circles
that former State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel confessed that, in his
orbit, users shared the powder "like a football ... back and forth."
The then-rising political star privately described his casual drug
culture to a SLED investigator last spring when Ravenel was first
confronted about his drug use.

Ravenel portrayed himself as being drawn from a healthy lifestyle
into a cocaine world that stretched from the Upper King Street bar
district to mansions south of Broad Street.

"I was sort of addicted to working out," Ravenel told Lt. Frank
O'Neal during conversations on June 15 and 16.

"Then, recently ... I was just kinda, you know, I was just looking
to, I don't know, I was around people that were doing it."
Transcripts of the interviews obtained by The State under
open-records laws show that Ravenel discounted the extent of his
habit. He told O'Neal he did not use drugs in high school or at The Citadel.

By the time Ravenel was sentenced in March to 10 months in federal
prison, he acknowledged he first experimented with drugs at 15, using
marijuana. During the sentencing hearing, one of Ravenel's attorneys
told federal Judge Joe Anderson his client's drug use was a "social
problem." Anderson countered that Ravenel was "not forthcoming
fully," noting Ravenel didn't immediately tell investigators how much
and how often he used. Cocaine highs fueled Ravenel's successful
commercial development career, and his drug use zoomed in 2005,
according to information released in court. Records show he was using
drugs during the period when he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S.
Senate in 2004, as well as during his campaign to become the state's
chief financial officer in 2006.

Ravenel, 46, is free on bail and has yet to report to prison to begin
his sentence. Efforts this week to reach him and his attorney Bart
Daniel were unsuccessful.

'Sharing' Cocaine

During the telephone conversations, O'Neal pressed Ravenel to
characterize the cocaine culture among Charleston's elite."I mean
it's everywhere," Ravenel responded. "Sharing, you know, like ... a
football, and we're throwing back and forth to each other. I wasn't
trying to hoard it or anything."

The identities of people Ravenel named were redacted from 28 pages of
SLED documents. But the picture that emerges is that Ravenel's drug
partners included a board of directors member, real estate
developers, someone "from a very affluent family with vast property
ownership throughout the state," and a pharmaceutical salesman.

Some investigators have described Ravenel's crowd as "Charleston dilettantes."

O'Neal, who teamed with federal agents on the case, pushed Ravenel to
name any "big guy," especially politicians or attorneys.

Ravenel waffled, then said none were elected officials or lawyers.
But later, he said he had given it more thought. "I've been thinking
about this attorney or politician; I don't know of one single
attorney," he told O'Neal. List of places to buy Ravenel also
recounted his favorite places to buy drugs: his home, apartments on
Meeting Street, a boat and restaurants and bars. Ravenel dodged
O'Neal's questions about the frequency of his cocaine use. "Maybe
five or 10 times from each (partner), but I don't know. Those are
like forgettable moments. You don't want to remember 'em." He told
the investigator the first time he used cocaine was at a Charleston
New Year's Eve party in 2002.

Early in the investigation, he acknowledged he bought one to two
grams at a time, often from a street dealer he knew as "Hash" or
"Hashmere." Hash has been identified as co-defendant Michael Miller,
who was charged with the same offense and sentenced to an identical
penalty. Ravenel also disclosed that one of his key suppliers was in
the wine business. Wine-tasting expert Pasquale Pellicoro has been
charged but is a fugitive; authorities believe he has returned to his
native Italy.

Remarks on Other Users

Ravenel also dished on some in his cocaine circle.

He referred to one man as "well studied ... a good father." Yet the
convicted former state treasurer said, "I just think he's just kinda
maybe a poor leader."

Ravenel called one woman "a leech" and said another had sex with a
man at his Church Street home while her date waited in the kitchen.
Even as he was under investigation, Ravenel kept a busy schedule. He
told O'Neal he had to "check my schedule on my government Blackberry"
before he could schedule a meeting with chief federal prosecutor
Reggie Lloyd. During another interview with O'Neal, Ravenel stopped
the conversation because he had to make a speech to Girls State, an
organization that teaches civic mindedness to accomplished high
school seniors. The treasurer cooperated with investigators from the
moment they approached him in a parking garage at the State House.

He seemed resigned to his future. "Where do you think this is going?"
Ravenel asked. "Major scandal and jail and all this stuff."

He told O'Neal he had learned his lesson. He said the last time he
bought cocaine was May 25, 2007.

"And now I don't want to do it. I've been scared straight. I promise
I won't do this (expletive) ever again."