I bought a piece of equipment off the street and pawned it. Police checked pawned equipment about 4 months later. I was arrested for theft, but then changed to breach of trust. My employee refused to swear out a warrant. Police swore out warrant. Case went to state and then was sent down to Magistrate court in South Carolina. They want me to plead to breach of trust. I will lose my coaching license if I do. I asked for an investigation from public defender as police wrote in investigation that it was a piece of equipment that I was very familiar with as I used it most days. This is not true. I rarely used equipment of this type. I have fellow employees who will state this in investigation. My former employer (I was fired) has told employees that they cannot talk to investigator without him being present. Is this intimidation? Can he do this? What should I do?

You need to hire your own private investigator to do investigation. Most Public Defender office don't have investigators and even funds for reserch, they merely make sure that things are done legally.

The fact you were fired, Had something that appears to have belonged to them, and pawned it,
I am sorry, it sounds guilty,

So you need to have a better answer than "bought it off the street"

Did not steal it. Bought it-- really did. Did not even suspect it belonged to my company. Why would I pawn it if I knew I had stolen it?