|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Disgraced former Spartanburg County, South Carolina Sheriff Chuck Wright has reported to federal prison to begin his 41-month sentence, according to an official with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
The same official — an Executive Assistant at FCI Jesup in Georgia— said Wright, 61, did not report to that facility despite it being the location his attorneys had requested at last month’s sentencing.
“The inmate in question has already self-surrendered, and he is NOT at FCI Jesup,” the Executive Assistant told FITSNews via email. “He went straight to his designated facility, which is not us, and is not anywhere near us.”
The Executive Assistant further noted that Wright was “never designated” to their medium-security facility, meaning the former sheriff is housed at any one of the roughly 117 other facilities within the BOP system.
“This information should be updated on the public BOP.com website soon,” the Executive Assistant noted.
Despite that, Wright does not appear in the BOP’s public inmate locator system, leaving his exact facility unconfirmed as of this publishing.
Call it déjà vu…
***
RELATED | CHUCK WRIGHT MISSING AMID FEDERAL PROBE
***
Roughly 16 months ago, Wright’s whereabouts similarly became a subject of speculation after he quietly checked into a Florida rehab facility while still serving as Spartanburg County’s top cop, right around the time a federal grand jury was being empaneled to hear testimony against him.
As FITSNews exclusively reported then, the five-term sheriff of one of South Carolina’s largest counties was under a joint investigation spearheaded by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
While SLED’s efforts would ultimately be in vain, as S.C. 10th Circuit Solicitor Micah Black declined to prosecute state-level charges Wright despite admitting the evidence was “overwhelming,” Wright ultimately pleaded guilty to three federal public corruption charges last October.
Those crimes included stealing more than $89,000 in donated cash from the sheriff’s office’s Benevolence Fund intended to help deputies in times of hardship, obtaining 147 pills of oxycodone and hydrocodone under the guise of a pill take-back program, and employing his blood cousin to work as a so-called “ghost deputy” for roughly two decades.
Wright was furthermore ordered to pay $462,866.06 in total restitution.
“I apologize to the court, to Spartanburg County, to my law enforcement colleagues and to my family, who I let down,” Wright said during his July 7 sentencing. “I was in a position of trust and responsibility and I failed you.”
***
***
As for the former sheriff’s codefendants, the aforementioned cousin, Lawson “LB” Watson, 74, was convicted for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from January 2021 to March 2025 for work prosecutors maintain he did not perform. For this, Watson was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $349,885.22 in restitution.
“I want to apologize to the court, my family and the people of Spartanburg County,” Watson said during his July 9 sentencing. “I’m just a regular old guy, and I apologize to everybody thats in here today.”
The third and final codefendant, former sheriff’s office chaplain Amos Durham, 62, narrowly avoided months in federal prison for a single public corruption charge stemming from not only enabling Wright’s abuse of the Benevolence Fund… but for using that same tax-exempt money to enrich himself.
Durham was ultimately handed five years of probation and ordered to pay $95,442.39 in restitution.
“I also want to take full responsibility for my role in this offense, ” Durham said during his July 9 sentencing. “What started out as one bad decision became a slippery slope… I do not blame anyone else. I accept full responsibility.”
While Wright’s self-surrender to federal prison signals the end of a saga for the mainstream media outlets that were slow to touch it from the start, his three public corruption charges appear to hardly scratch the surface of his 39 years in Palmetto State law enforcement.
As our ever-expanding rolodex of sources familiar with both sides of the badge indicate, the former lawman’s legacy is growing increasingly entangled with convicted fraudsters, illegal gamblers, underground cockfighters, drug distributors and a widening cast of violent criminals.
As for why state and federal agents looked some of these people in the face and did nothing, that remains unclear…
Write to Andy Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.
UPDATE | Wright reported to FCI Lewisburg, a medium-security federal institution in Pennsylvania.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy Award–winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. He joined FITSNews in 2023 after leaving an NBC affiliate, where he served as on-air talent. His reporting focuses on public corruption in South Carolina, with an emphasis on law enforcement misconduct and abuse of power.
***
SOUND OFF…
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
3 comments
Wright is not going to serve much time. Trump will pardon him. That’s why Attorney General Alan Wilson didn’t pursue state charges. South Carolina’s process is governed by the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.
A pardon isn’t necessary when the charging decisions already did the work.
Wright obtained 147 Schedule II opioid pills — bought from a street dealer in the sheriff’s office parking lot, in uniform, badge on, weapon on hip. The prosecutors charged 21 U.S.C. § 843(a)(3) — obtaining by misrepresentation. Maximum 4 years. No mandatory minimum.
They could have charged § 841 or § 846 — possession with intent or conspiracy to distribute — where the aggregate weight of 147 Schedule II tablets triggers mandatory minimums that remove judicial discretion entirely. That is what a civilian catches for the same pills.
The $89,000 Benevolence Fund theft was charged as conspiracy (§ 371, max 5 years) instead of the substantive offense (§ 666, max 10 years per count — and each withdrawal could have been a separate count). The twenty-year ghost deputy payroll was charged as a single conspiracy count (§ 1349) instead of substantive wire fraud (§ 1343, max 20 years per count — and twenty years of biweekly paychecks is roughly 520 individual fraudulent transactions).
Not charged at all: 18 U.S.C. § 242 (deprivation of rights under color of law), § 641 (theft of government property for the $17,000 in personal county credit card charges), § 1346 (honest services fraud), money laundering (a Benevolence Fund check written to a drug supplier), and the pill suppliers themselves — the street dealer who sold Schedule II narcotics to the sheriff walked as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Three counts. Conspiracy wrappers instead of substantive offenses. The lightest drug statute in the chapter. Stipulated loss amount agreed by both sides to produce a 33-41 month guideline range. Meanwhile, 10th Circuit Solicitor Micah Black — who declined state charges despite calling the evidence ‘overwhelming’ — routinely sends civilians to state prison for 11 to 25 years on drug trafficking charges.
And now the self-surrender. The BOP confirms he self-surrendered but he’s not at FCI Jesup — the facility his attorneys requested. He was ‘never designated’ there. He’s ‘not anywhere near’ there. He doesn’t appear in the BOP public inmate locator. The federal government’s position is: trust us, he’s in prison — we just can’t tell you which one. This is the same man whose whereabouts became ‘a subject of speculation’ sixteen months ago when he quietly checked into a Florida rehab while a federal grand jury was being empaneled. He disappeared then and he’s disappeared now. The system that tracks 150,000 federal inmates cannot tell the public where one convicted sheriff is sleeping.
A civilian who fails to self-surrender gets a warrant, a fugitive charge, and a US Marshals visit. A convicted sheriff gets the benefit of the doubt from the same system that convicted him.
The apparatus performed exactly as designed.
Self surrendered? Does he want a medal?