Morgan Rowe
Introduction
Morgan Rowe is a former Mount Pleasant, South Carolina police officer who was fired on August 25, 2026 after an internal investigation confirmed he was above the legal limit during an off-duty driving-under-the-influence arrest in Georgia two months earlier . Rowe himself reported the June 14, 2026 arrest to Mount Pleasant officials, was placed on administrative leave without pay pending a blood test, and was terminated once the results confirmed the DUI allegation .
Background Information
Rowe served as an officer with the Mount Pleasant Police Department, one of the largest municipal departments in South Carolina’s Lowcountry . On June 14, 2026, Rowe was arrested by the Georgia State Patrol while off duty and driving his personal vehicle, on suspicion of driving under the influence . Rather than concealing the arrest, Rowe alerted Mount Pleasant officials to it, which placed him on administrative leave without pay while the department awaited blood test results from the case .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The incident that ended Rowe’s career began as a traffic stop in Georgia: Georgia State Patrol arrested the off-duty officer on June 14, 2026 while he was behind the wheel of his personal vehicle, on DUI charges . Rowe reported the arrest to his own department, which suspended him without pay pending a blood test rather than resolving the case on the roadside breath results alone . The blood test results later confirmed that Rowe was above the legal limit at the time of the arrest, converting the allegation into a substantiated finding .
Over two months after the arrest, the Mount Pleasant Police Department officially terminated Rowe’s employment, closing the administrative process his own disclosure had started . The DUI charge itself is a criminal matter in Georgia, and the reporting available for this page does not state the disposition of that case; the substantiated blood-test finding documented here is the department’s basis for the firing .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The department’s handling drew little public controversy precisely because of its sequencing: Rowe self-reported, the department suspended him immediately without pay, it waited for forensic confirmation rather than acting on the stop alone, and it fired him within days of receiving the results . The termination removed an officer whose off-duty conduct put him on the wrong side of the drunk-driving laws he was sworn to enforce, a category of case that police agencies across South Carolina have handled with dismissal when the evidence confirms . Local Charleston-area coverage documented the arc from self-report to termination .
Current Status
Rowe’s employment with the Mount Pleasant Police Department was officially terminated on August 25, 2026, after the blood test confirmed he was above the legal limit during his June 14 off-duty arrest in Georgia . The status of the underlying Georgia DUI prosecution is not stated in the sources available for this page . No appeal or reinstatement has been reported, and Rowe is presumed innocent of the criminal charge unless and until proven guilty in that separate proceeding .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The firing ended Rowe’s policing career in Mount Pleasant, and a termination for a substantiated off-duty DUI is a standing bar to sworn employment at most agencies, independent of how the Georgia criminal case resolves . His self-report changed the optics of the case but not the outcome: the department still separated him once the forensic evidence landed, preserving the process while enforcing the standard . For the department, the case stands as an example of a DUI-process firing completed on forensic confirmation rather than immediate termination at the stop .
Sources
- WCIV ABC News 4, “Mount Pleasant officer fired after investigation confirms off-duty DUI arrest in Georgia” — source