Judge says US Senate nominee Greene can stay free on misdemeanor obscenity charge

Judge says SC Senate candidate can stay free

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A judge says Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene can remain free on a misdemeanor obscenity charge.

The 33-year-old Greene was indicted in August on misdemeanor and felony charges of showing online pornography to a teenage South Carolina college student. He has been free on $5,000 bond for the felony. Circuit Court Judge James Barber ruled Thursday that the same bond would apply to the misdemeanor.

Greene has not entered a plea to either charge and has declined to comment on the case. His attorney, Eleazer Carter, told The Associated Press that the obscenity charge is “a waste of court time” and that Greene was trying to flirt with the woman in a campus computer lab in November.

Greene won a surprising victory in the June primary to face Sen. Jim DeMint. A day later, AP was first to report his arrest.