CULPEPER COUNTY, VA- On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who wear the badge, Law Enforcement Today is beseeching either Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin or President Donald Trump to exercise their pardon and/or clemency powers to intercede on behalf of former Culpeper County (VA) Sheriff Scott Jenkins.
Sheriff Jenkins is a constitutionalist who has put his career and his liberty on the line by unabashedly supporting the Second Amendment. As payback, Jenkins was apparently targeted by the Biden administration and is now facing 10 years in prison for what can only be described as a government-orchestrated hit job, something President Trump is intimately familiar with.
Sheriff Jenkins came to national prominence in 2020 during the pro-2A rally at the Virginia State Capitol, a frequent guest on networks such as CNN, Fox News, and others. That apparently caught the attention of someone, as did a call Jenkins participated in with several other sheriffs in December 2022 that was subject to an FBI wiretap, unbeknownst to Jenkins. During that call, the subject of the Hunter Biden laptop was raised. Others on the call included Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, Florida, and Sheriff Mike Lewis of Wicomico County, Maryland.
The plan was to get half a dozen sheriffs to review the laptop, which they were told contained evidence of crimes, including child pornography, sex crimes, and possible treason by members of the first family. They would then seek criminal charges in their respective jurisdictions against Hunter Biden.
Jenkins believes that the FBI agents monitoring the wiretap passed that information on to someone in the Department of Justice, which he alleges triggered his indictment just a few weeks later.
Jenkins wouldn’t be the first sheriff who crossed the Biden administration to find himself receiving a federal indictment. Frederick (MD) Sheriff Chuck Jenkins was indicted in early April 2023 after a May 2022 sting operation by agents from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The ATF agents unexpectedly stopped by the sheriff’s office to interview Jenkins and later began recording an hour-long conversation with him without his knowledge. Jenkins was out of the office when they initially stopped by, and according to a release from his criminal defense team, “they were rude and unprofessional towards the staff” at the sheriff’s office. Despite having no obligation to speak with the ATF agents, Jenkins returned to the office and answered all their questions.
ATF agents told him that they were investigating small town police chiefs and sheriffs nationwide who were allegedly taking kickbacks from gun dealers in return for letters on law enforcement letterhead requesting demonstraitons of highly restricted machine guns, thereby allowing the dealers to obtain the weapons and earn income by renting them to members of the public to be used on the dealer’s gun range.
The crime was that in those cases, the police agency never really wanted to purchase machine guns. However, the agency wrote the letters in return for cash and a percentage of the rental income of the machine guns. This was the ruse under which the ATF questioned Jenkins.
For background, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins was a committed and outspoken 287g sheriff, meaning he had dedicated his agency to assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with illegal aliens. That no doubt caught the attention of the Department of Justice, which was run at the time by radical Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Despite having no evidence of a quid pro quo, nor evidence that Jenkins knew that providing a letter to a local gun shop (The Machine Gun Nest) was illegal, ATF continued the investigation.
In fact, the release notes that Jenkins had provided similar letters to other gun dealers in addition to the owner of The Machine Gun Nest, Robert Krop, as far back as 2013, all of which were approved by the ATF. While guidance on the letters was disseminated to gun dealers nationwide several times between 1999 and 2023, no law enforcement agencies were notified.
Therefore, Jenkins could not have known that there was anything illegal or improper about what he was doing. In other words, there was no intent that he and Krop were engaged in a criminal conspiracy.
Long story short, Sheriff Jenkins was indicted. The prosecution never attempted to speak with Jenkins before indicting him, despite his attorney offering it. In other words, they had already made up their minds.
Fortunately, the case was dismissed last November “with prejudice,” meaning the government cannot retry him.
This brings us to Sheriff Scott Jenkins and Culpeper County. In 2022, Jenkins was allegedly involved in a “cash for badges” scheme that came out from a former Culpeper County auxiliary deputy sheriff assisting federal investigators in a “sting” operation. According to our sources, that source, Kevin Rychlik, was indicted in a tax evasion scheme where he owed over $3.4 million in delinquent taxes.
More recently, Rychlik is accused of shutting down a Virginia flight school, stiffing students out of untold amounts of money. He filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Aug 6, 2024, citing business debt between $10 and $50 million. Rychlik has claimed he is “dealing with serious health complications” after allegedly suffering a series of strokes. In other words, Rychlik had plenty of motivation to assist the feds to save his own hide.
When he was arrested for the tax evasion scheme, Rychlik threw his longtime friend and associate, Sheriff Jenkins, under the bus, no doubt to try to save his hide with the feds. According to WVIR-29, Rychlik testified during Jenkins’ trial that he had known him since 2011, claiming that he gave Jenkins $5,000 in exchange for being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy sheriff.
Over the next ten years, Rychlik alleged, he would be bringing so-called “money guys” to Jenkins who would donate to his campaign or the sheriff’s office, and in return get an auxiliary deputy sheriff’s badge. That is Rychlik’s side of the story.
Law Enforcement Today conducted a lengthy interview with Sheriff Jenkins, who told us that Rychlik owned VASAR (Virginia Search and Rescue), which would assist law enforcement utilizing airborne assets such as small aircraft, helicopters, and drones for cases such as fleeing felons, missing persons, and other incidents.
It was after an incident in 2012 where a suspect shot at Rychlik when he requested an appointment as an auxiliary deputy sheriff for himself and members of his company, and he was appointed as sergeant in charge of auxiliary deputy sheriffs.
Jenkins explained that as a sheriff, citizens donate to his campaign (as with any politician) since he has to be elected to office. He said some citizens also donate to the office for equipment.
He expressly denied taking cash in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, who he said carry no weapons, have no arrest authority, and often do not wear uniforms. He noted that in most cases, such an appointment is honorary in nature. He noted that some celebrities, such as country singer Jellyroll, have been appointed as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, in his case in Michigan. Shaquille O’Neal is another such example.
Jenkins explained that the $5,000 was a campaign donation…nothing less, nothing more—in the case of Rychlik. He also noted that not everyone who made a campaign or sheriff’s office donation was sworn in as auxiliary deputies.
Virginia has the oldest sheriff’s department in the US, and sheriffs have broad authority, unlike police chiefs. Auxiliary deputy sheriffs in Virginia have limited authority. They are unpaid, do not have to meet the exact training requirements as deputy sheriffs or police officers, must meet specific age requirements, and, in the case of Culpeper County at least, must have a high school diploma or equivalent.
As part of the sting operation on Jenkins, Rychik wore a wire and brought people before him with cash donations, who were then allegedly sworn in as Auxiliary Deputy Sheriffs. This was clearly designed as a setup and appeared to be an effort for Rychlik to endear himself to the feds, who were no doubt anxious to go after a sheriff who was, in their mind, operating against the Biden administration.
Jenkins said that as part of the operation, Rychlik would ask questions in a particular way when bringing in prospects to attempt to elicit incriminating responses from Jenkins. He said he didn’t notice it initially; however, after everything started to come out, he realized it was a setup. At trial, the only people who testified against Jenkins were those brought in by Rychlik.
Jenkins explained that he would never have risked going to jail over money, noting that his financial situation was stable.
One allegation made by the court was that Jenkins used his brother to “launder” money. In one case, Jenkins took out a loan from a family friend who was in the loan business for $35,000. Since he was working on building a home at the time, he gave his brother $9,000 of that money, and his brother gave him the money back in order to pay for some of his expenses, such as grading, concrete, etc., for the new home.
He noted that many contractors offer a discount if they are paid in cash to avoid tax implications. That is perhaps improper for the contractors, but it is not illegal for Jenkins to do so.
The court also suggested that Jenkins had taken $95,000 in bribes; however, of that amount, $75,000 was part of a business deal Jenkins had arranged back in 2020. The rest were campaign donations.
After the gun rally at the Virginia capital, Jenkins copyrighted the term “Make Virginia Great Again,” and worked with someone to produce merchandise such as hats and shirts. The merchandise was going to be sold on Amazon by his business associate, however, COVID happened and the merchandise was put in a storage unit, where it still sits today.
As we have seen in a number of federal trials lately, federal judges are very adept at not allowing exculpatory information into evidence. In this case, Judge Robert Ballou, a district judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, a Biden appointee, went on an unhinged tirade against Sheriff Jenkins in court.
He accused him of hiring “unqualified, unvetted people who were untrained and you didn’t train in law enforcement,” clearly not understanding the requirements of an auxiliary deputy sheriff in Virginia. When Jenkins tried to raise the requirements in court, Ballou shut him down.
Moreover, the defense tried to introduce other auxiliary deputy sheriffs to testify to explain not only the training and appointment criteria but also to offer background on how they were appointed, requests which Ballou again refused to allow.
The defense attempted to raise a number of other issues, including manipulated video and audio recordings presented as evidence by the prosecution. As we have seen, in federal court, judges only allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and rules of evidence. We recently reported on a case out of New Mexico where the defense was prohibited from introducing training records, department policy, and state use of force policies as exculpatory evidence.
Sheriff Scott Jenkins is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail. We hope that Gov. Youngkin or President Trump will see fit to commute his sentence or give him an unconditional pardon.
