Ravenel speaks as prison sentence looms:'I just kind of went nuts'

It was bound to happen.

A repetitive self-destructive streak made Thomas Ravenel spoil his life just when things were going good again, he said.

And things were going good for Ravenel, the youthful South Carolina state treasurer whose path appeared to be pointed toward a seat in the U.S. Senate.

He just couldn't help himself.

"It was a combination of self-sabotage and arrogance, plain and simple," Ravenel acknowledged Friday, adding that on the last day that he ever bought cocaine — May 25, 2007 — he knew he was going to get caught and that his world would come crashing down.

"I think what happened to me is that I went through a midlife crisis," he told The Post and Courier in his first sit-down interview since the cocaine scandal broke. "I ... wasn't married, no kids. I just kind of went nuts."

For two hours Friday afternoon, in the tranquil setting of his isolated marsh-front plantation house on Edisto Island, Ravenel, who turns 46 in August, tried to clear up some of the misconceptions about

him and the cocaine scandal that cast him from office.

He wasn't a coke-sniffing "drug-head" who needed drugs to function during his professional rise, he insists, and he wasn't "Scarface," either. "Contrary to public opinion, it's not that addictive," he said. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, however, would beg to differ, stating on its Web site that cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that directly affects the brain.

Ravenel wants to get back into politics again some day.

"I didn't steal any money, there was no public corruption," he said. "I just hurt myself."

He knows that he did wrong by using drugs while in elected office but says he deserved a break from federal Judge Joe Anderson, instead of the 10 months behind bars and the $250,000 in fines and restitution he got after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine.

"A first-time drug user should not go to prison," said Ravenel, who is scheduled to report to the federal lockup at Jesup, Ga., by May 29.

Why indulge in cocaine at all, especially around Charleston's loose-lipped, bar-hopping party crowd? Maybe it was because life had become too easy, he said. The millionaire developer, who became a darling of the state Republican Party, said the hurdles were becoming less and less difficult to overcome after financial and professional success came so quickly.

How did his cocaine use start? Ravenel admits he dabbled in drugs in his youth and wasn't afraid to smoke a joint if he was offered it at a party or use drugs when he traveled overseas. But today, he insists he was practically drug-free for years until around the time he became treasurer and that the drug became more available through contacts around town.

Getting elected treasurer in 2006 was nice, he said, but Ravenel now says it was a mistake for him to even run. He was pushed into the race by a consultant and his father, longtime Charleston political figure and current school board member Arthur Ravenel Jr., he said.

"My heart and soul was becoming a U.S. senator," he said of his narrow loss in the 2004 GOP primary won by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint.

Attempts to reach Ravenel's father were unsuccessful and Thomas Ravenel's attorney, Bart Daniel, was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Ravenel dates the last wave of cocaine use to around 2005, but he says he never used it ahead of a political stump, while in his office or with any other elected official in the state. His habit was mostly recreational, he says, buying sporadically and saving it for party times, although he said the frequency of his use increased.

The government's cocaine case against Ravenel broke in mid-June 2007 when agents confronted him out of the blue. At the time, Ravenel spoke to them without requesting an attorney of what he knew about the drug scene in Charleston.

"Initially, I just thought they wanted to get the drug dealers," he said, adding he was "totally naive" in thinking he wasn't a target. Ravenel was indicted by a federal grand jury June 19 that year, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in March of this year.

Where the state and federal probe of Charleston cocaine use will go remains unclear. Ravenel said Friday he has no idea who other targets might be, but a State Law Enforcement Division report released last week detailing his early interviews listed several King Street bars where Ravenel would buy and use cocaine. The document also described several of the figures Ravenel identified in the Charleston cocaine world.

One user was described as "having financial problems due to excessive attorney fees." Another was a female whom Ravenel knew had "a lack of moral character." Another is "a well-known (name redacted by SLED) who has been featured in numerous magazines and has sold (blank) to people like ..."

Still another "is from a very affluent family with vast property ownership throughout the state." Another subject is identified as "a pharmaceutical salesman who Ravenel believes has a drinking problem."

In the report, Ravenel also said cocaine use is so widespread in the Holy City that it was shared "like a football ... back and forth."

"And God knows where these people get their stuff from," Ravenel said at one point in the interview. "I mean it's everywhere." The comments were contained in documents released under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act.

Ravenel said that he began running with the drug crowd because they were young but now admits he used bad judgment in letting some of them into his home, including his drug supplier and co-defendant Michael L. "Hashmere" Miller of Mount Pleasant.

"I was too busy having this liberal mentality, you know, 'I'm friends with everybody,' " he said. "Where did that get me?"

With his prison reporting date less than two weeks away, Ravenel is preparing in various ways for a life behind bars. He's reading Watergate figure Chuck Colson's book "Born Again," about his time in prison, and "George and Laura," about President Bush's turn toward a life of sobriety at age 40.

He's also lifting weights and talking to other white-collar criminals about how they survived, including Charles D. "Pug" Ravenel, a distant cousin and former Democratic candidate for governor who eventually was pardoned after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud; Kevin Geddings, a former aide to S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges who went to prison over a North Carolina lottery scandal; and former North Charleston lawmaker Danny Winstead, who was convicted of accepting bribes in Operation Lost Trust, the FBI's 1990 sting of the S.C. Legislature.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Gov. Mark Sanford and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer also have called with words of encouragement, he said.

Ravenel remains angry that he has to go to prison at all. If the case had been pursued in state court rather than at the federal level, he and his legal team contend he probably would have gotten a slap on the wrist and no incarceration time at all. He also insists he cooperated fully at every turn.

"You can fight the state, but you can't fight the feds," he said of the court systems, adding, "that doesn't excuse what I did as state treasurer."

While in prison, Ravenel said he will seek out "the worst job they have" so it doesn't look like he's getting special treatment. But he would like to teach a class if offered; Ravenel has an MBA from the University of South Carolina.

"I've kind of resigned myself that I'm not going to get any breaks," he said, though he also termed the prison sentence the judge gave him as potentially "a gift" aimed toward turning his life around.

Reach Schuyler Kropf at skropf@postandcourier.com or 937-5551.

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