Ex-Westinghouse official, the last defendant in SC’s SCANA nuclear case, headed for May trial

Jeffrey Benjamin, the last defendant in the five-year federal investigation into the failure of SCANA’s $10 billion nuclear project in Fairfield County, could be headed to trial in South Carolina federal court as early as next May.

Federal Judge Mary Lewis made the decision at a hearing late last week over the objections of Benjamin’s lawyer, who told her that defense lawyers still have a massive trove of documents to go through to adequately prepare their defense.

“We can’t imagine that either side will be ready by May,” Benjamin’s lead attorney William Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor, told Lewis Dec. 1 at the federal courthouse in downtown Columbia.

A trial date of late summer or early fall 2023 is more realistic, he said.

Benjamin, a former senior vice president for Westinghouse, was indicted in August 2021 by a federal grand jury in Columbia. He is accused of helping to hide major workplace problems from 2015 to 2017 at SCANA’s nuclear plant construction project at the V.C. Summer site in Fairfield County.

“We believe we have a highly defensive case,” said Sullivan, who also is seeking various now-confidential grand jury transcripts, FBI interviews and other documents he claims the prosecution has withheld. “He (Benjamin) is innocent.”

Lewis, however, told Sullivan a May trial date is feasible.

“That is a gracious plenty of time to get ready”, she said. “If you want every single thing, you would never get your case ready for trial. The documents and what happened are pretty much a matter of public record.”

Federal prosecutor Winston Holliday told the judge at that same hearing that prosecutors have worked to turn over all pretrial material to the defense, but the defense is not entitled to all the material it seeks. Lewis said she plans to review the material and make a decision on whether the defense is entitled to it.

Holliday also indicated the prosecution will be ready for trial in May.

The failure of SCANA and Westinghouse to build the nuclear plant in Fairfield County, a surprise development announced in July 2017, threw thousands of people out of work and led to a buyout of SCANA, once one of South Carolina’s most successful companies, by Dominion Energy.

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In his job, Benjamin oversaw Westinghouse’s new plants and major projects, and Westinghouse was the lead contractor at the site.

Since, former Westinghouse Vice President Carl Churchman, former SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh and former SCANA Executive Vice…