A year before the U.S. Attorney’s Office brought charges against Scott Jenkins, one of the businessmen he allegedly took money from in exchange for granting auxiliary deputy status to was in Loudoun County impersonating himself as a Leesburg narcotics officer
Former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins’ trial on federal bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges is set to begin tomorrow, after Jenkins was hospitalized for panic attacks right before his Nov. 12 trial was set to start.
Jenkins, 53, is accused in a federal indictment of accepting more than $70,000 in bribes from people he allegedly made auxiliary deputies, claiming their badges would allow them to carry concealed weapons in all 50 states. Jenkins is charged with one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, and eight counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. He has pleaded not guilty.
However, three businessmen from Northern Virginia also charged in the bribery ring have already accepted plea deals and are set to testify against Jenkins. Jenkins had been the Culpeper County Sheriff since 2012 until he lost his re-election bid in 2023.
According to Culpeper County Circuit Court records, a total of 46 auxiliary deputies were appointed by Jenkins and sworn in by a circuit court judge, which is more than double the number of auxiliary deputies authorized by a Culpeper County ordinance “not to exceed 15% of the paid force.”
According to the June 29, 2023 indictment, from at least April 2019, Jenkins accepted cash bribes and bribes in the form of campaign contributions totaling at least $72,500 from Rick Tariq Rahim, 55, of Great Falls, Fredric Gumbinner, 64, of Fairfax, James Metcalf, 60, of Manassas, and at least five others, including two FBI undercover agents. In return, Jenkins appointed each of the bribe payors as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law-enforcement position, and issued them Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office badges and identification.
Virginia state code § 15.2-1733 states auxiliaries should be of “good character” and a Culpeper Sheriff’s general order states auxiliaries will go through the same hiring process as full-time deputies, which involves an “extensive background check,” including searches for felony convictions and “crimes of moral turpitude.”
Despite this, Rahim, who was convicted of three felony counts of obtaining property under false pretenses in Fairfax County in 1992 and was sentenced to serve six months, was still deputized as an auxiliary officer by Jenkins.
“I’m a Leesburg narcotics detective and getting ready to retire”
In August 2021, one of the businessmen charged in the bribery case appeared in a residential neighborhood in Southwest Leesburg. He pulled up in a parking lot and parked a white sedan with “a round emblem that looked like a Leesburg or County seal on it” and got out of the vehicle, according to a source. He was wearing a badge of some sort and grabbed a clip board from the car.
He then made his way to the back of the private property and was walking the grounds behind the buildings. Curious, the source, who was home at the time, came outside and approached the business man and inquired why he was on the property.
“The man said he was a narcotics detective with the Leesburg Police Department and was doing some surveillance work. Specifically he said he was looking for exit points on the back of the building because the department had recently had reports of narcotics activity in the neighborhood and he wanted to know how people might be entering and exiting the buildings,” the source said.
A full 20-minute conversation ensued between the resident and the man posing as a law enforcement officer. “The man said he was getting ready to retire soon, as he had been with the Leesburg Police Department for something like 17 years. We talked about Trump and other topics related to Leesburg. I was fully convinced he was who he said he was.”
The resident asked for a way to stay in touch with the man, who said he didn’t have business cards with him. “He wrote his personal email address on a yellow sticky note and gave it to me,” the source said. Shortly afterward, the two walked back to the front of the building and the man got in his vehicle and left.
A couple months later, the source was having conversation with a Leesburg Police detective and relayed that one of the department’s officers had been out to the neighborhood. Puzzled, the detective asked the name of the officer and the source shared it with the detective.
“We don’t have anyone in my department with that name or on the force,” the detective said. The detective then asked if the man left any contact information and the source provided the email address the man had left.
Through that email address, the Leesburg Police Department was able to identify the man, and charged him with impersonating a police officer. That case was adjudicated in April 2022 with the Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorneys Office entering into a plea deal with the man which allowed him to complete mental health counseling in exchange for dismissing the charge and eventually expunging his record.
A year later, the man would be named as a defendant in the Culpeper Sheriff’s case.
In accordance with the Virginia statute relating to expungement of court records, All Virginia News is not naming the man or the source and has not been given access to the expunged case file. All information was obtained solely through witness accounts from sources directly involved, permitted pursuant to [Weil v. No Defendant, 108 Va. Cir. 208 (2021)].
When you don’t punish criminal behavior, it often continues
Buta Biberaj was the former Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney in 2022 when the impersonation case was adjudicated. Elected as Commonwealth Attorney in 2019, she ran on a platform of anti-mass incarceration and said during her departure speech in 2023 that she was proud to have reduced the number of inmates in the Loudoun County Detention Center from 425 to less than 250.
Biberaj was one of 12 members of the “Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice”. In its inaugural statement, the group called for seven policy changes: permitting prosecutors unlimited access to police records on cases of police misconduct, a requirement for all warrants to be served during the day and with sufficient announcement, ending six-month drivers license suspensions on all drug convictions, opening avenues for expunging criminal convictions from an individual’s record, removing mandatory minimum sentencing laws, extending deferred deposition, and codifying the discretionary power of prosecutors.
They also fought to end cash bail.
On Jan. 4, 2021, the group issued a letter to leaders in the Virginia General Assembly regarding reforms they planned to advocate for in the coming legislative session. They successfully lobbied the Virginia state legislature to make Virginia the first Southern state to legalize marijuana and abolish the death penalty.
By 2023, Loudoun County suburban voters had had enough, three years removed from the George Floyd momentum responsible for electing progressive Commonwealth Attorneys. They voted Biberaj out of office despite Biberaj outspending her Republican opponent Bob Anderson 10-to-1.
Commonwealth Attorneys and prosecutors have a legal obligation to remain politically neutral in the prosecution of cases, but Biberaj had received frequent criticism of how she handled cases, which many felt were a direct reflection of her political ideology.
“Obviously the Commonwealth Attorney’s way of handling the case – mental health counseling – didn’t work. I wonder if Biberaj and her office had properly held the man responsible for impersonating a police officer if he would have thought twice about engaging with Sheriff Jenkins to become an auxiliary deputy. It seems justice was not served,” said the source.
Audrey Carpenter is the Northern Bureau Chief for All Virginia News. She can be contacted at: audreycarpenter@allvirginia.news
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