Jurors heard more testimony Friday in the federal bribery trial of former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, including by a man who already pleaded guilty to paying for a badge.
Prosecutors showed jurors the personal attention Jenkins allegedly lavished on Rick Rahim, who already pleaded guilty to paying for a badge. Jenkins has pleaded not guilty.
Rahim, a convicted felon, admitted on the stand Thursday he bribed Jenkins with $25,000 cash, gave thousands in a loan he said he was never paid back and bought the sheriff’s office an expensive drone.
“I participated in bribing Mr. Jenkins to obtain things like obtaining gun permits and being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy,” Rahim told jurors.
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He testified Jenkins gave him a lease on a Jenkins family property, allowing Rahim to fake his residency in Culpeper, though he said on the stand he never lived there.
Jenkins defense called the alleged bribes campaign donations and told the jury Jenkins never accepted a bribe.
Jurors were led through Jenkins’ official campaign finance filings on Friday. Payments from two of the men who pleaded guilty and admitted bribing Jenkins $20,000 or more were not listed on the forms, according to testimony.
Culpeper courthouse staffers testified Jenkins himself took Rahim to the clerk’s office to drop off paperwork to restore his firearms rights and personally pushed a judge and commonwealth’s attorney to fast-track the process in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those same staffers told the jury deputies repeatedly visited the clerk’s office to check on firearms paperwork for Rahim, the only time most of them could recall that happening.
A former deputy told the jury Jenkins asked him to make a special sheriff’s office identification card identifying Rahim as a member of the office, as a helicopter pilot. Rahim said he owned a helicopter. But that former deputy said the Culpeper County Sheriff's Office did not.
A second former auxiliary sheriff’s deputy, Fred Gumbinner, said on the stand Friday he used his auxiliary badge to get a COVID vaccine in Florida as a first responder, get through TSA PreCheck and drive around a traffic jam.
He testified he paid $20,000 for a badge because he thought it would be cool and would help him get out of speeding tickets. Like Rahim, he also already pleaded guilty to bribing the sheriff.
The defense is expected to argue their case next week.
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