Feds charge Virginia sheriff with selling badges for campaign contributions

The sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia faces federal charges in an alleged scheme to hand out deputy badges in exchange for campaign contributions, Reuters reported.

"In an indictment unsealed on Thursday in the Western District of Virginia, Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Howard Jenkins, 51, is accused of abusing his position by engaging in a scheme to appoint volunteers to serve as auxiliary deputy sheriffs in exchange for bribes," reported Sarah Lynch. "Through this alleged scheme, prosecutors said he accepted at least $72,500. Three of the men who accepted deputy sheriff appointments — Rick Tariq Rahim, 55, of Great Falls; Fredric Gumbinner, 64, of Fairfax; James Metcalf, 60, of Manassas are also charged in the case."

According to the report, Jenkins also allegedly accepted a bribe from Rahim to approve a petition to restore his right to carry a gun, in violation of the state's residency requirements.

"The indictment alleges he authorized auxiliary deputy sheriffs to carry concealed firearms in any state without obtaining permits, encouraged them to pay bribes through other individuals, and disguised the payments as firearms purchases," said the report. "Undercover FBI agents helped investigate the scheme by posing as people who were interested in becoming auxiliary deputy sheriffs, with one of them even pretending to have a criminal record."

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Jenkins granted them badges in return for envelopes of cash.

In many states, sheriffs often operate with little or no oversight as their county's top law enforcement official, and as such are implicated in spectacular scandals.

In 2021, Sheriff Charles Lemon of Marlboro County, South Carolina was charged with ordering his deputies to torture an inmate with a stun gun. That same month, Sheriff Craig Rowland of Bingham County, Idaho was charged with pulling a gun on a teenage church group going door to door in his neighborhood, and said he had to be suspicious because "drunk Indians" frequently come to his door.