A federal jury found former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins guilty Dec. 18 in a bribery scheme connected to his 2023 reelection campaign.
Jurors convicted Jenkins of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services and mail fraud and seven counts of bribery.
The verdict followed a six-day trial in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 31, where Jenkins faces a maximum of five years in prison on the conspiracy count, 20 years in prison on each of the honest services fraud counts, and 10 years in prison on each of the bribery counts.
"The former sheriff sat stoically as the verdict was read, his family sitting behind him," according to NBC Washington. "Jenkins, who pleaded not guilty, could face significant jail time, according to prosecutors."
According to testimony, Jenkins accepted bribes in exchange for auxiliary deputy sheriff appointments and other official acts, including a petition to illegally restore an associate’s firearms rights.
Jenkins accepted “at least $72,500” in cash bribes and bribes in the form of campaign contributions from co-defendants Rick Tariq Rahim, 55, of Great Falls; Fredric Gumbinner, 64, of Fairfax; James Metcalf, 60, of Manassas; and at least five others, including two FBI undercover agents, according to court records.
Jenkins also provided the co-defendants with sheriff’s office ID cards and badges, the indictment states.
While Jenkins has maintained his innocence, Rahim, Gumbinner and Metcalf all pleaded guilty and will be sentenced Jan. 28 in Charlottesville.
Jenkins ultimately lost his reelection bid for the sheriff’s post in November 2023, finishing third with 20.16% of the vote as former Deputy Police Chief Tim Chilton won with 55.38%.
According to court records, Jenkins allowed Rahim – a Great Falls resident – to claim he was living in Culpeper County, illegally meeting the requirements needed to restore Rahim’s firearms rights. In May 2021, Rahim was sworn in as an auxiliary deputy sheriff, and the sheriff’s office issued him a firearm and magazines.
The court record also details interactions with undercover FBI agents. In one meeting, an agent provided Jenkins $5,000 cash immediately after being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy sheriff in November 2022.
The second agent handed Jenkins an envelope containing $10,000 cash upon receiving his own auxiliary deputy badge around December 2022, after an unnamed Northern Virginia businessperson had recommended him to Jenkins, according to court records.
Upon recommendation, the businessperson also said the second undercover agent had been convicted of a crime – to which Jenkins allegedly responded: “I’ll just personally walk it through, take a look and we’ll talk,” court records state.
Neither agent’s donation was included in the Jan. 9, 2023, campaign finance filing for the Scott Jenkins for Sheriff campaign, according to the indictment against him.
Around Jan. 30, 2023, Jenkins sent four firearms to both undercover agents and two other unnamed individuals in an effort to conceal the cash bribes he had received as false gun purchases, the indictment states. Jenkins also instructed another associate, the same businessperson who recommended the second undercover agent as an auxiliary deputy candidate, to create false documentation reflecting those fraudulent firearm transactions.
The alleged crimes took place between early 2019 and early 2023.
(1) comment
I was present for nearly twenty hours of testimony over three days of this trial.
The prosecution presented a remarkable volume of, not evidence, but PROOF, of Jenkins’ deliberate actions accepting payment for badges and law enforcement identification, as well as his attempts to disguise bribes as purchases of farm equipment and weapons.
The prosecutor asked the jurors to look at the trial’s evidence not through the lens of “presumed innocence” (as the defense requested), or through the lens of guilt (as the defense asserted the prosecution preferred), but with the jurors’ COMMON SENSE.
Jenkins’ deceit was breathtaking; his criminal intent clear; his guilty verdicts inevitable.
Now the ex-Sheriff’s wife, along with his brother and sister-in-law, need to face criminal charges for conspiracy and money laundering. Jenkins couldn’t have run this criminal enterprise for as long as he did without their participation.
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