A Charleston-area musician is behind bars on charges of criminal sexual conduct.

Mt. Pleasant Police say 60-year-old singer-songwriter John Brannen was arrested by officers early Monday and charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of committing a lewd act on a child under 14.

Officers said a 9-year-old girl told officials at the Lowcountry Children’s Center on January 18 that she had been sexually abused by Brannen when she was between the ages of 6 and 8. The victim told police that the suspect touched her inappropriately several times.

In court on Monday, Brannen’s lawyer said similar allegations were investigated by the Lowcountry Children’s Center in 2009 and found not to be true.

Brannen has made a minor career as a “roots rock” musician since the 1980s. He toured with Toby Keith and Shania Twain early in the careers of those future stars. He also wrote the song “Somebody” for legendary band The Eagles 2007 album Long Road Out of Eden.

Richland County deputies say a prison guard shot a pregnant woman he knew, then set her body on fire in woods near Fort Jackson.

Deputies arrested a 23-year-old Tristan Gist Monday in connection with the discovery of the burning body in the woods near Eastover Thursday. Gist, an officer at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, is charged with murder and death or injury of a child in utero due to the commission of a violent crime, according to a released from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

He is accused of shooting his common-law wife 22-year-old Dierra Fisher in the head, driving her body to the woods off Screaming Eagle Road Extension, and and setting her body on fire. He’s also accused of killing Fisher’s unborn child in what the sheriff’s department calls a “horrible act of domestic violence.” Firefighters found the body when they responded to the ensuing brush fire.

Gist’s two children rode in the car with him as he drove the body to the Screaming Eagle woods, deputies say.

The body has not yet been definitively confirmed as Fisher’s. The Richland County Coroner’s Office says it will try to match the body with medical records.

Former Greenville County deputy Timothy Jackson has been arrested on charges of misconduct in office and obstructing justice.

The 32-year-old’s arrest came after an internal investigation found that Jackson began a physical relationship with a woman he met while investigating an unrelated criminal domestic violence case in December. Investigators say Jackson learned that the woman was a wanted felon and used his resources to confirm that information. However, he did not arrest her and even tried to get the charges dropped.

The woman has not been identified.

“I’ve always held deputies… to a higher standard. They should know right from wrong,” Greenville County Sheriff Steve Loftis said shortly after announcing Jackson’s arrest. “But when an incident this egregious is committed, I have no alternative except to do the right thing and place charges against deputies where warranted.”

He said Jackson’s relationship with the woman had only lasted about three or four days before other deputies were alerted to it while searching for the wanted woman

Jackson was fired from the Sheriff’s Department in December. He had been with the agency since 2009. He had even been awarded the Medal of Valor in December for his helping care for a wounded deputy in August. Jackson was one of five deputies who were awarded the medal after he helped wrap and treat another deputy who was shot during a struggle with a suspect at the Red Roof Inn on Aug. 13.