‘I am still the sheriff’: Indicted lawman defiant in local TV news interview

A Virginia sheriff facing federal bribery and conspiracy charges was defiant in a local television news interview Monday.

Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins told NBC4 Washington, “I am still the sheriff. I am still working. I am still running for re-election.”

Jenkins was indicted on eight counts of federal programs bribery, four counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia announced Thursday in a news release.

Jenkins declined to address the charges against him after the television station’s investigative team spoke with him briefly outside his office.

He said he was visiting the Sheriff’s office for a business meeting.

The 51-year-old was among four people indicted on conspiracy charges on Thursday. The three others are businessmen accused of paying him for law enforcement badges.

Jenkins has not yet issued a plea. The three businessmen all pleaded not guilty last week.

The indictments followed years of reporting from NBC4 over how the sheriff runs his office and Auxiliary Deputy Program.

Former Culpeper Police Chief Chris Jenkins (no relation) assailed the county’s top law enforcement officer, telling the television station, “to see the leader of an organization, a leader in this county, betray the trust and basically sell out badges to the highest bidder – it’s unfathomable I think to this community.”

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