‘Depraved and disgusting’: Former police chief in South Carolina sentenced to 15 years for ‘sextortion’ scheme

William Parker solicited pornographic photos and videos and sexually abused women in his family, attorneys said

BY: Skylar Laird

COLUMBIA — A former police chief in Lexington County was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for threatening and sexually abusing members of his own family to collect nude photos and videos from them through a false identity.

William “Billy” Parker, 67, pleaded guilty in October to cyberstalking resulting in serious bodily injury and communicating threats with the intent to extort.

Under the aliases of “Willie Boner” or “John Wayne,” the married father of two called, emailed and texted six women in his family in 2021 and 2022, telling them to send him pornographic photos and videos of themselves.

If they refused, Parker told them he would rape them, their children and their grandchildren, and that he’d hurt their husbands or uncles. His messages often included specific details about what their family members looked like, where they worked and where they lived, proving to them that he was capable of harming them, prosecutors said.

“I had no idea such a deep level of fear existed,” one victim said in a statement that prosecutors read Thursday in court.

His wife attended but did not speak.

Judge Cameron McGowan Currie called Parker’s actions so disturbing, they kept her up at night.

“This is simply as depraved as anything I’ve seen in my 30 years as a federal district judge,” she said in issuing Parker’s punishment.

Still, she shaved three years off the recommended minimum sentence of 18 years.

His defense attorneys sought five to 10 years. Asking for leniency, they said he had a 37-year career as a reputable police officer in the Columbia area with no criminal record. He retired in 2017 after five years as police chief for tiny Pine Ridge, a town of 2,000 people. His attorneys said he was haunted by the trauma of childhood sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder from it and his job.

That, combined with Parker being unlikely to outlive a 20-year prison sentence, is why Currie said she went with 15 years.

‘Depraved and disgusting’

Prosecutors laid out his criminal scheme and how he used his reputation as an officer to victimize his own family.

Using fake email accounts, burner phones and voice-modulated messages, Parker threatened six women, including his sister-in-law, niece, sister and son’s girlfriend, they said.

The women, thinking they were being extorted by a stranger, turned to Parker for advice because of his history in law enforcement.

Parker told the women to do whatever the person asked out of fear that their families might get hurt. He told the women not to call the police, reassuring them that he would use his authority as a longtime police officer to work with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division on the case.

“What perverted advice is that?” prosecuting attorney Elliott Daniels said.

Once a woman sent a photo or video, Parker would use it to get more, Daniels said.

Either Parker would solicit more photos and videos from the woman who had sent the first one by threatening to leak it, or he would use the photos and videos as blackmail for other women in the family, telling them he would expose their loved one unless they sent the same.

Eventually, Parker — still pretending to be “Willie Boner” or “John Wayne” — demanded the women have sex with him. In at least one case, Parker sexually abused one of the women after the extortionist — who happened to be him — demanded a sex video. Parker did so under the guise of making it look real to appease the scary person making the demands, attorneys said.

Parker’s defense attorneys said they could not defend or excuse what he did.

“There are not enough words in my vocabulary to describe how depraved and disgusting his behavior was,” defense attorney Steven Hisker said.

Blaming PTSD

Parker committed his crimes in “the darkest period of his life,” Hisker said.

He was dealing with PTSD caused by trauma as a child, when a cousin repeatedly raped him, he said.

“I think that’s really what set this train in motion,” Hisker said.

As a child, Parker had no access to counseling or other help in dealing with the sexual abuse, so he instead buried it and, for most of his life, ignored it. And during his decades in law enforcement, Parker dealt with homicides, suicides, car wrecks and other situations that were difficult to process. Still, he shoved that all down, Hisker said.

In 2018, Parker told his son, a drug addict, to leave his property after seeing him and his girlfriend injecting heroin outside Parker’s house. Parker’s son got angry and attacked him with a metal bar. Parker, afraid for his life, shot both him and his girlfriend.

Both survived, but that scarred Parker, said his attorneys and a counselor he has been seeing for the past two years. Friends wrote to the judge that after that, he withdrew from his community and became increasingly isolated.

On top of that, he retired early from his job in Pine Ridge after he was attacked during an arrest, requiring shoulder surgery and leaving him adrift from his identity as a law enforcement officer.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Parker became increasingly depressed and isolated. He developed a pornography addiction before eventually soliciting pornography from women in his life, Hisker said.

‘Not the Billy we know’

When his family members learned what he had done, most were shocked, defense attorney John Meadors said.

“‘This is not the Billy we know,’” Meadors said Parker’s wife, Becky, told him.

Parker’s actions shocked even him, he told the judge Thursday.

“I don’t know how I could’ve done such horrible things to the people I love,” he said.

His counselor and spiritual advisor, Dorrie Smith, said Parker recommitted himself to religion after his arrest.

“Billy is a mostly good person who has done mostly good things in his life,” Smith said.

Friends also wrote to the judge asking for leniency.

“I continue to respect the Mr. Billy I knew, and I am at a loss to understand why and what caused Mr. Billy to do the actions which he has admitted to committing,” wrote former Pine Ridge Mayor David Busby. “I cannot fathom how a man who served so many years to uphold the law and serve others could commit such egregious acts.”

In a tearful statement to the court, Parker apologized to the women he abused and extorted, saying he has been praying three times a day for their healing and forgiveness.

“Whatever (the sentence) is, we’re going to get through this,” Parker said. “But believe me, I’m worth saving.”

Parker’s case was tried in federal court because at least one of the women he extorted lived in a different state, according to court documents. Under a South Carolina law passed last year, sexual extortion within the state can also be tried as a felony, with a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years.

Source: SC Gazette