SLED arrests 3 SC men US Rep. Nancy Mace accused of sex crimes

COLUMBIA — Three of the men U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace accused on the House floor of sexual crimes were arrested Wednesday.

The arrests of Mace’s ex-fiancé, Patrick Bryant, as well as John Osborne and Eric Bowman come 20 months after Mace’s shocking, hourlong public speech, when she accused them of being sexual predators, with a posterboard of their photos as background. All immediately and have since repeatedly denied the allegations.

The three men were booked in the Charleston County jail Wednesday, the State Law Enforcement Division said.

A fourth man she accused in her speech was not charged.

Osborne, of Charleston, faces charges of assault and battery, as well as two counts of criminal sexual conduct. Bryant, of Mount Pleasant, and Bowman, of Sullivans Island, were both charged with voyeurism, and Bowman had additional charges of obstruction of justice and publishing the name of a victim of criminal sexual conduct.

All of the allegations in their arrest warrants are from October 2018, four years before Mace’s engagement to Bryant.

Bowman and Bryant received cash bonds of $50,000, according to court records. Osborne’s bond was set at $75,000.

Osborne’s attorney, Ryan Schwartz, said his client is innocent and “intends to defend himself vigorously.” He did not give details on Osborne’s side of the story, saying those will come out in court.

“An arrest is an accusation, not a conviction,” Schwartz said in a statement.

Bowman and Bryant, along with attorneys who have represented them previously, did not respond Wednesday to calls from the SC Daily Gazette requesting comment.

Not charged with a crime was Brian Musgrave of Fort Mill, who Mace included in her public accusations. Musgrave sued Mace over the claims, but a judge later dismissed the lawsuit, pointing to the “speech or debate” clause that protects members of Congress from being sued over what they say on the floor.

“Obviously, Brian is happy not to have been criminally charged and not to be grouped with the others recently charged, but it has opened up some pretty deep wounds,” Musgrave’s attorneys, Eric Bland and Ronald Richter, said in a statement Wednesday. “To this day, Ms. Mace has never apologized to Brian and his family for what she falsely said about him.”

During her bombshell speech, Mace accused the men of sexual misconduct against herself and other women, saying she found videos and photographs of herself and other women on Bryant’s phone that appeared to mostly have been taken without the women knowing. The posterboard behind her as she spoke included their names and addresses with the heading, “PREDATORS. STAY AWAY FROM.”

In a statement Wednesday, the 1st District congresswoman did not directly address the charges but pointed to bills she supported to increase penalties for sexual crimes, strengthen protections for survivors of sexual assault and fight voyeurism.

“Every survivor deserves to be heard,” Mace said in the statement. “Every victim deserves justice. Every predator deserves accountability. We will not stop fighting until our laws put victims first and predators behind bars.”

The investigation focused on a then-23-year-old woman, according to the arrest warrants, which do not name her.

The woman, who is also suing the three men over the incident, came back to Bowman’s home in Sullivan’s Island after drinking on Oct. 26, 2018. She was so intoxicated, she fell in the pool while wearing her clothes, according to arrest warrants for the three men, which all lay out the same events. She is identified in the lawsuit, filed in May 2025, as Jane Doe.

After undressing, she passed out on the couch, where she covered herself with a pillow, according to the warrants.

The arrest warrants accuse Bowman, Bryant and Osborne of discussing “sexual exploits” while she was unconscious, then agreeing that Bowman and Bryant would watch while Osborne had sex with her.

Osborne assaulted the woman, “who was mentally incapacitated and physically helpless due to her extreme intoxication,” an investigating officer said in the warrants.

According to the warrant, an unnamed witness heard the conversation and watched what happened through the home’s security cameras. She saved photos from the video feed and wrote down what she saw in a journal entry, investigators said.

The woman didn’t know what had happened that night until Mace told her more than five years later, in April 2024, according to her lawsuit, which recounts the same events.

According to Mace, she learned about the incident after checking her then-fiancé’s phone and finding the photos and videos.

During her speech, Mace mentioned telling a woman she’d been assaulted by the three men. In her lawsuit, Joe Doe says she is the victim Mace referenced.

Bowman faces an additional charge of posting the woman’s name on social media and sharing a video of her despite knowing SLED was investigating, according to the warrant for his arrest. He is also accused of wiping his phone when SLED investigators attempted to seize it under a search warrant, the SLED documents read.

Mace sued Bowman for defamation, saying he posted false statements about her on social media last year. Bowman denied the claims, and the lawsuit has been on pause since June.

Bowman was arrested in August 2025 on unrelated charges of harassment and domestic violence. Those charges remain pending.

The latest charges Wednesday come four months after Mace lost her bid for governor.

Mace, first elected in 2020, will leave office in January. She launched a podcast called “Get Maced” in August.