Justice Costa Pieicones of South Carolina; greedy, lifetime porker

The state of South Carolina presented Costa Pieicones with a law license in 1968 after he graduated from the University of South Carolina Law School.

Since receiving his law license, Costa has had his significant snout firmly implanted in the public trough for the vast majority of time. Before being elected as a justice of the Surpeme Court in 2000, he spent 13 years as a Circuit Court judge. And prior to that, he spent several years as a public defender for Richland County and a part-time municipal court judge for the City of Columbia and Richland County.

Beginning in 2012, Costa decided it was time to unjustly enrich himself by collecting an annual retirement pension of $125,306. This was in addition to the $131,171 judicial salary he receives as an associate justice of the Surpeme Court.

In total, taxpayer funding for Costa’s annual salary and pension is $256,477.

It is indeed a sad commentary on the state of the judiciary in South Carolina that someone of Costa’s ilk actually believes he is worth over $250,000 a year to the hardworking taxpayers of South Carolina.