Evidence continues to mount in the case against former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins.
On Monday, Rick Rahim became the third former auxiliary sheriff’s deputy to plead guilty to bribing Jenkins.
The indictment against Rahim and Jenkins alleges Rahim paid Jenkins $25,000. He handed Jenkins the cash in manila envelopes, prosecutors say. They claim Rahim also paid for a campaign billboard, 200 custom knives and a $17,500 loan “towards a new home Jenkins was building.” Prosecutors say Rahim never asked to be paid back “because he wanted to maintain a good relationship with Jenkins.”
Rahim denied wrongdoing to the News4 I-Team on his way to the federal courthouse in Charlottesville Monday morning.
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"I didn’t do anything," he said.
Just minutes later, Rahim told the federal judge he did.
Prosecutors laid out the plot. Rahim was convicted of four financial felonies in the 1990s. Felons can’t own guns, so Rahim lost his right to own one. Federal prosecutors say and court documents reveal Rahim met then-Sheriff Jenkins in 2019 and a plan started to get Rahim his right to own a gun restored.
In exchange for the cash payments, Jenkins would allegedly use his official position to both help Rahim get his rights restored and become an auxiliary deputy, which further enhanced his rights.
Rahim is the third former auxiliary deputy to plead guilty in the case. It helps complete the picture of how then-Sheriff Jenkins allegedly worked the bribery scheme to collect cash and checks. Court documents say only some of that money made it to Jenkins’ campaign account. The rest allegedly went to Jenkins’ personal accounts. In exchange, Jenkins gave all three of the men auxiliary deputy badges, allowing them to legally carry a gun.
Rahim also was assigned to a security detail for President Joe Biden during a visit to the Culpeper area in 2022.
Jenkins has pleaded not guilty. His attorney did not respond to an email Monday asking how Rahim’s plea affects the case against Jenkins.
Court documents and previous testimony make clear the feds have hours of recordings of the alleged bribes in this case. All of those tapes and now testimony from three former deputies who have pleaded guilty could be part of former Sheriff Jenkins’ trial. It is now scheduled for late July.
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