A former mayor of South Carolina is expected to do so plead guilty Thursday to federal charges that he stole from his force’s charity fund and took painkillers that were supposed to be destroyed as part of a pill take-back program.
Former Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright signed a plea agreement last month with federal prosecutors on charges of conspiracy to commit theft related to software receiving federal funds, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation. He is scheduled to appear Thursday morning in federal court in Anderson.
Wright will be at least the 12th sheriff in South Carolina to be convicted or plead guilty to on-duty crimes within the past 15 years for misconduct ranging from Blackmailing drug dealers To exist Prisoner work In their homes for Hire a woman Then he pressured her to have sex.
Sheriffs run law enforcement organizations in the state’s 46 counties. South Carolina law empowers elected officials Wide latitude About how their money is spent, what crimes their agencies focus on stopping, and who they hire and fire. They also provide little oversight other than each county’s residents voting every four years.
Abuse of power aside, the convicted sheriffs have little in common. They were in small Rural agencies And big, Urban ones. There was a plan for Creating false police reports To help clients of a friend’s credit repair business. Sharif Taking bribes To prevent the deportation of the restaurant owner’s employees. One covered Illegal arrest. And another Punch a woman In her face and stole her mobile phone.
In Wright’s case, the former sheriff plundered funds meant to help deputies facing financial hardship, including once saying he needed money to send an officer to Washington to honor a deputy killed in the line of duty. Federal prosecutors said the money went into his own pocket instead.
Most of Wright’s crimes occurred while he was dealing with an addiction to painkillers. In addition to the medications he took from the pill take-back program, Wright also obtained a blank check from the charitable trust and used it to pay for oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, writing them to his dealer, according to court records.
Wright also faces more than 60 counts of ethics violations for using his county-issued credit card for personal expenses. In all, there was more than $50,000 in disputed spending, including more than $1,300 he allegedly spent in the Apple App Store and about $1,600 he paid for Sirius/XM Radio, according to court records.
Wright agreed to plead guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit theft in connection with programs receiving federal funds, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation. He is scheduled to appear Thursday morning in court in Anderson.
The maximum sentence for all three charges combined is nearly 30 years, although Wright is likely to receive a much lighter sentence. He will also have to pay at least $440,000 in restitution. No sentencing date has been set.