LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. - Lexington County Sheriff’s detectives arrested a bondsman on charges that he forced a woman to perform manual labor and sexual acts for him as a condition of posting her bail.
Curtis Jackson Maroney, 51, was arrested on charges of blackmail and trafficking in persons for forced labor or services.
He is being held without bond at the Lexington County Detention Center.
Maroney works as a licensed bondsman with a Lexington-based bonding company, Affordable Bonding Company.
Arrest warrants allege that on August 12, Maroney posted bail for the 39-year-old Lexington woman and obtained the woman’s release from the Lexington County Detention Center.
He posted her bail on the condition that the woman act as his girlfriend which included cleaning, cooking, as well as performing manual labor and sexual acts.
Maroney remained with the woman at all times and told the woman that he would revoke her bond and arrest her if she did not obey all of his commands.
Maroney extorted services from the woman in lieu of payment for bail.
The woman was arrested on July 31 on charges of driving under the influence. She was released August 12 after Maroney posted bail in cash that totaled $16,122.50.
On August 17, the woman reported the blackmail and forced labor allegations to the Sheriff’s Department after she convinced Maroney to drive her to her father’s home near Lexington to visit her two children.
Maroney waited in his vehicle outside the home of the woman’s father. After she telephoned the Sheriff’s Department, the woman refused to leave her father’s residence until she spoke with deputies.
Under South Carolina law, trafficking in persons for forced labor or services is a felony that carries a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison. Blackmail carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
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