Pepperoni Audits: Florence County Deputy’s Resignation and Fallout

Pepperoni Audits is a YouTube channel run by Joshua Roberts, a South Carolina First Amendment auditor who films in and around government buildings and law enforcement facilities to test whether officials respect the public’s right to record. The channel drew wider attention in September 2022, when a Florence County sheriff’s sergeant tackled and arrested Roberts during one of his recordings. The sergeant resigned days later after an internal investigation found he had committed numerous policy violations, and all charges against Roberts were dropped.¹²

Roberts, who was 34 at the time of his most widely covered encounters, has described his work as “flexing my rights” to keep them from eroding, comparing constitutional freedoms to muscles that weaken without exercise. By mid-2022 the channel had grown past 11,000 subscribers.¹³

What Happened in Florence County

The confrontation that put the channel on the map took place on or around September 12, 2022, near Dove Technologies in Effingham, South Carolina. Roberts was recording the business from a public easement when, according to a citizen report filed with the Giglio-Brady National Index, a company employee allegedly assaulted him and Roberts brandished a taser in response. Florence County deputies arrived but did not intervene in the initial altercation.⁴

Sgt. Paul Morrison, a veteran deputy with the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, then arrived and approached Roberts until the two were nearly face to face. Body-worn camera footage later reviewed by the department shows Morrison ordering Roberts to put his hands behind his back, tackling him to the ground, and handcuffing him. Morrison told Roberts he was being charged with resisting arrest. Roberts can be heard on video replying, “Resisting? I’m not moving.”¹⁴

Roberts said the takedown caused a concussion and that he was denied medical treatment while in custody. After his release he went to an emergency room. He also said his footage of the encounter had been deleted while he was detained. The original charges against him included breach of peace, resisting arrest, and third-degree assault and battery. All were later dropped.⁴

The Internal Investigation and Resignation

After Roberts filed a written complaint, the Florence County Sheriff’s Office opened an internal affairs investigation. Investigators reviewed all available footage, including body-worn camera video, and interviewed deputies who were on scene. The investigation concluded that “numerous FCSO Policy violations” had occurred during the incident. The specific policies were not publicly identified.²

Morrison resigned on September 15, 2022. Department records described the resignation as voluntary but tied to the internal investigation. He had been employed by the agency on three separate occasions since 2008, most recently starting in 2014, with earlier stints at the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and the Florence Police Department. He had completed use-of-force and critical decision-making training as recently as April 2022.²

Sheriff TJ Joye said the department met with Roberts and his attorney to share all existing video evidence, and that the agency had conducted and was continuing First Amendment training for its deputies. “We will continue to respect the First Amendment rights of the citizens of Florence County and those who travel here,” Joye said.²

The matter was also transferred to the 12th Circuit Solicitor’s Office for potential criminal review. South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy records as of September 2022 indicated Morrison was under internal investigation and that a pending criminal investigation existed. Available reporting does not indicate whether Morrison was ultimately prosecuted or decertified.¹

An Earlier Confrontation at the Sumter County Courthouse

The Florence incident was not Roberts’s first encounter to generate an official review. On February 24, 2021, Roberts and an associate who films as “No Name Audits” entered the old Sumter County Courthouse to record in public areas. Dennis Powell, the county’s facilities manager, confirmed that the building was open to the public and that filming was permitted.³

Joe Perry, the Sumter County Communications Coordinator, saw it differently. He repeatedly demanded the men stop, tried to seize Roberts’s camera, and followed the auditors for several blocks while calling 911 multiple times. Both sides said there was physical contact. In a later interview with a Sumter County Sheriff’s investigator, after being read his Miranda rights, Perry explained his reaction by invoking the January 6 Capitol breach. “I’m extremely mindful of what happened on Jan. 6 at our nation’s Capitol,” Perry told the investigator. “These two individuals looked exactly like people who invaded the Capitol.”³

Roberts filed a criminal complaint against Perry on February 26, 2021. The sheriff’s office investigated and forwarded the case to Third Judicial Circuit Solicitor Ernest “Chip” Finney on March 19, 2021. Sumter Police officers who had responded to the scene treated the dispute as a “civil issue” and filed no report. On May 3, 2022, Finney declined to prosecute, finding “no substantial evidence which would support a prosecution of any assault by Joe Perry.” He cited the lack of physical injury and noted that Roberts had continued following Perry after the initial confrontation, which suggested no “present fear of immediate harm.”³

The Law Behind the Camera

The practice Roberts engages in rests on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court has not explicitly established a standalone right to film public officials or public buildings, but it has recognized a “paramount public interest in a free flow of information” and treated recording as an “integral step in the speech process.” The First, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits have each recognized some form of a First Amendment right to record police performing their duties in public. The Seventh Circuit held in 2012 that audio and video recording is “necessarily included within the First Amendment’s guarantee of speech and press rights.”⁵

That right is not absolute. Courts have allowed reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. Exterior areas, sidewalks, and parks are generally traditional public forums where recording is broadly protected, but interior spaces inside government buildings can be classified as nonpublic forums where agencies may impose content-neutral, uniformly applied limits on filming. South Carolina also follows a one-party consent rule, which lets a person who is part of an interaction record it without notifying the other participants.⁵⁶

The Fourth Circuit, which covers South Carolina, has been slower than other circuits to embrace the right to record. In an unpublished 2009 decision, it concluded that the right to record police on public property was not “clearly established” as of 2007. For auditors operating in the Carolinas, that leaves a less certain legal shield than in circuits where the right has been more firmly recognized.⁵

How the Auditor Movement Is Viewed

Pepperoni Audits is one channel in a loosely organized nationwide movement of First Amendment auditors who visit government offices, police stations, and courthouses with cameras rolling and post the results online. Supporters argue the practice is a form of accountability that can capture officers violating clearly established rights. Roberts has acknowledged pushing limits, telling a reporter, “Sometimes I do try to work on that thin line to see how far you can go.”¹

Critics, including law enforcement officials and municipal risk managers, say many audit videos capture mundane scenes rather than real misconduct and that YouTube monetization encourages auditors to provoke confrontations. Bill Aleshire, an attorney and former Texas county judge, told First Amendment Watch that auditors are “most divisive and least valuable when they, themselves, become nothing more than reality TV producers.” Observers have also noted that audit videos often carry sensationalized captions and comment sections that mock the officials involved.⁷⁵

1
WPDE. YouTube Video: Florence County Deputy Losing His Job Speaks Out
2
WBTW. Florence County Deputy No Longer Employed After Recorded Incident Uploaded to YouTube
3
QC News. County Official Investigated After Confronting Cameramen Who Looked Like Insurrectionists
4
Giglio-Brady National Index. Citizen Report for Paul Morrison
5
UNC School of Government. Responding to First Amendment Audits: Is Filming Protected by the First Amendment
6
Hellams Law. Is It Illegal to Record a Police Officer
7
First Amendment Watch. Controversial First Amendment Auditors Test the Right to Film in Public Spaces