Republican Crime Blotter: The Constitushonal Sheriff

 

 

Crackpot Republican sheriff gets busted in Virginia:

A Virginia sheriff who prosecutors say offered police badges and gun permits in exchange for payments or political contributions has been indicted on bribery charges.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Culpeper County Sheriff Scott H. Jenkins (R) accepted at least $72,500 in cash and campaign contributions beginning in 2019 from donors he agreed to appoint as “auxiliary deputy sheriffs,” according to a 38-page indictment unsealed Thursday. In prosecutors’ telling, Jenkins schemed to enrich himself while at the same time using his office to expand access to firearms in the suburban Virginia county.

Jenkins, 51, was first elected in 2011 and is running for a fourth term in November. Staff at the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to questions about the indictment Thursday. Jenkins and three co-defendants were scheduled to appear in federal court in Charlottesville on Thursday afternoon. All four were in custody, court records show.

“Scott Jenkins not only violated federal law but also violated the faith and trust placed in him by the citizens of Culpeper County by accepting cash bribes in exchange for auxiliary deputy badges and other benefits,” said U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh of the Western District of Virginia, whose office is prosecuting the case with the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. “Our elected officials are expected to uphold the rule of law, not abuse their power for their own personal, financial gain.”

Following a mass killing in Virginia Beach in May 2019, Culpeper County officials voted to become a “Second Amendment Constitutional County” and established the auxiliary deputies, who are unpaid volunteers with some police powers and firearms-carrying privileges that go beyond what those who don’t work in law enforcement can get.  [snip]

Prosecutors said Jenkins charged between $5,000 to $21,000 to would-be auxiliaries, including three Virginia men who were indicted alongside him: Rick Tariq Rahim, 55, of Great Falls; Fredric Gumbinner, 64, of Fairfax; and James Metcalf, 60, of Manassas. They were charged with conspiracy, fraud and bribery and could face up to decades in prison. No lawyer was immediately listed for the men in court records.

Jenkins let each of them know the badge and identification card issued by the sheriff’s office authorized them to carry a concealed firearm in any state without obtaining another permit, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Jenkins also accepted bribes from others who were not named in the indictment, including two undercover FBI agents. One of the undercover agents gave Jenkins an envelope with $5,000 immediately after being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy and receiving a badge, the indictment says. The second undercover agent posed as a convict. Federal law generally bars people convicted of felonies or domestic violence from possessing firearms. The agent gave Jenkins an envelope with $10,000 after being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy, according to the indictment. [snip]

“I appreciate what support you've given me, but you didn't do it for nothing,” Jenkins said about Rahim in a 2022 conversation quoted in the indictment. “You got a … a clean slate to carry a, not only carry a gun, we followed it up with swearing you in. Name another sheriff in the whole state of Virginia that would do that.”...

Well, hopefully, you're unique in Virginia at least, Scotty boy.

Meanwhile, wtf Culpeper voters?  The guy's not only a crook but one of those "constitutional sheriffs" who are basically Posse Comitatus flakes with a badge (which he'd be happy to sell to you, of course), named by the Anti-Defamation League as an anti- government extremist group.  Just the kind of person you want keeping the peace.

(Photo:  Ok, we'll go there -- oink -- / via Twitter/@mgreen7762 and @LynneVogt09)