Son arrested, charges against father dismissed

The Oconee Sheriff’s Office has announced that weapons charges against a West Union man have been dismissed and instead charges have been filed against the man’s son.  Sheriff Mike Crenshaw has issued an apology to the father after he was mistakenly arrested after a road rage incident last month on highway 28.  The Sheriff’s Office August 24 reported the arrest of Gabino Steven Moranchel (left) of Anderson Street, West Union on the charge of pointing and presenting a firearm at another driver.  But that charge has now been dismissed, and Crenshaw issued this statement:  “The charges against the elder Moranchel have been dropped and all information about his arrest has been removed from our website and social media sites.  We will continue to investigate and prosecute the case against Steven Moranchel Jr. and he did make arrangements to turn himself in.  Depriving some of their freedom through an arrest is something that I do not take lightly.  It is dependent upon our deputies to verify all information.  As Sheriff of Oconee, I apologize to the elder Mr. Moranchel for our mistake.”  Crenshaw gave this explanation of what happened:  “We looked into the case and discovered that our deputy obtained an arrest warrant based on the information off the South Carolina license plate which belonged to the father and not the son.  Having the same name, our deputy failed to verify the date of birth when obtaining the warrant.  The son was driving the elder Moranchel’s truck when the incident occurred.  Both individuals reside at the same address and both have Steven in their name.  However, the elder Moranchel’s birthday was used to obtain the warrant and he was placed under arrest on August 23rd.”