Thomas Ravenel, the former state Treasurer of South Carolina, has been arrested on assault and battery charges for allegedly forcing himself on his former nanny, stripping her and putting his penis in her face.

According to an arrest affidavit, Ravenel attacked Dawn Ledwell, 43, at his home in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 25, 2015.

She had been watching his children while he was out at dinner. When he returned home, “he forcibly removed her clothes, forced her hand onto his penis and grabbed at her vagina”, according to police.

The affidavit claims he ordered her: “Show me your p***y” and asked her: “Do you like big d***s?” as he shoved his penis in her face.

Ravenel, 56, was booked on Tuesday morning for second degree assault and battery, a misdemeanor charge which carries a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $2,500.

He was bailed out of Al Cannon Detention Center by the afternoon on a $20,000 personal recognizance bond which means he didn’t have to put up any money but must promise to attend all court appearances.

For a time, Ravenel was a rising star in South Carolina politics. He first ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the US senate in 2004, then he was successfully elected state treasurer in 2006.

I wrote about Ravenel’s rise, and fall, in politics in Front Row Seat at the Circus:

Rudy Giuliani’s endorsement by Thomas Ravenel, a rising star in state politics, was also a critical component for his 2008 presidential campaign.



Ravenel was part of a well-known and respected Charleston political family (the landmark Cooper River Bridge is named after his father Arthur) with deep pockets and resources.



I first met Ravenel in 2004 when he was seeking the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate. I moderated a live debate between the six candidates and while Ravenel lost that primary to Jim DeMint, many across the state believed he would be back on the ballot soon.



Two years later, he won the GOP nomination for state treasurer and faced a Democratic incumbent who had been in office since 1966. When Grady Paterson, then eighty-two, refused to participate in our scheduled live television debate, my General Manager Billy Huggins gave the green light to broadcast it anyway. The “debate” featured me asking Ravenel questions for thirty minutes with an empty chair at the table “in case Patterson changed his mind,” I told the audience. He didn’t. After four decades of public service, Ravenel sent Patterson into retirement.



Six months into his new office—and two months after he attended the Myrtle Beach Pelican’s ballgame as Giuliani’s state chairman—Ravenel was indicted on federal cocaine charges. He would quickly step down from the Giuliani campaign and later resign as state treasurer.



It was the beginning of the end for Giuliani in South Carolina. About two weeks after the indictment I interviewed Giuliani at a campaign stop in Myrtle Beach. “Sure, it came as a shock,” Giuliani told me. “It’s a terrible thing when something like that happens to someone. It’s something he’s going to have to answer for. But, you know, it’s one of those things that is highly personal.” Ravenel was later found guilty and sentenced to ten months behind bars. Federal Judge Joseph Anderson Jr. said, “We have an awful lot of cocaine parties at the house of a state constitutional officer.”



Ravenel would resurface in 2013 in a reality television show on Bravo about young aristocrats and southern plantations.

Bravo has announced Ravenel will not be returning as a Southern Charm cast member next season.