Former Santa Clara County undersheriff pleads guilty in gun permit bribery scheme
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Set us as preferred For years, it was nearly impossible to secure a concealed carry gun permit from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office — except for a few business executives who provided iPads, box seats to hockey games and other bribes to top officials.Santa Clara County prosecutors have won five convictions in the pay-to-play scheme since 2020, and on Monday they secured a plea deal with the final defendant: former Undersheriff Rick Sung.Sung, 54, who pleaded guilty to two felony counts of solicitation of bribery, is the highest-ranking sheriff’s official ever convicted by the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.He was second in command to former Sheriff Laurie Smith, who was found guilty of six counts of corruption in a rare civil case handled by the San Francisco district attorney’s office in 2022.
She was forced to resign but never faced criminal charges.Prosecutors accused Sung of leveraging the Sheriff’s Office’s rarely-issued gun permits to secure 200 iPads as well as a luxury suite for Smith and her friends at San Jose Sharks games.Under the deal, Sung will permanently surrender his California peace officer certification and complete 400 hours of community service and six months of probation.He will then be able to petition to reduce the felonies to misdemeanors and seek dismissal of the charges.
But he will not be eligible to work again as a peace officer in California.California The unusual trial, which sought only to remove Laurie Smith from office, continued even after Smith abruptly stepped down Monday.
She was found guilty on six counts of committing willful or corrupt misconduct in office.The former undersheriff initially fought the charges, resulting in a mistrial last year.Prosecutors decided to retry the case, and Sung agreed to a plea deal in lieu of another court battle.His...