The backstory
In February 2025, Republican Representative Nancy Mace took to the House floor for a nearly hourlong speech. She publicly detailed a series of disturbing discoveries she made on the phone of her then-fiancé, Patrick Bryant, which allegedly included non-consensual photos and videos of women and underage girls. She claimed these were acts of calculated exploitation that had gone largely unaddressed.
The charges
On Wednesday, state law enforcement officials officially moved against those involved. John Douglas Osborne (46) is facing charges for first-degree assault and battery, along with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Patrick Bryant (53) and Eric Bernard Bowman (46) were both charged with voyeurism. The situation stems from an October 2018 incident in a Sullivan’s Island home, where investigators say the men watched, photographed, and recorded the sexual assault of a 23-year-old woman who was incapacitated and intoxicated. According to police, the act was even captured on the home’s security system, and a witness monitoring the feed documented the assault in a journal.
The fallout
Beyond the voyeurism charge, Bowman is also facing obstruction of justice. Agents allege he performed a factory reset on his phone after learning it was under a search warrant and later posted the victim's name and footage of her on X. While Bryant previously denied all allegations during Mace's initial revelations, his current legal team has not responded to requests for comment.
Why it matters
Mace, who is wrapping up her time in the House after an unsuccessful run for South Carolina governor, is using the moment to push for legal reform. She’s currently proposing legislation that would require plaintiffs who lose sexual assault defamation lawsuits to cover the defendant's attorney fees, arguing that the current system consistently fails survivors while letting predators slip through the cracks. For Mace, the fight to hold these men accountable is highkey personal.
