By Paul Lathrop | Contributing Editor
A scandal in the Santa Clara California, Calif., County Sheriff’s Office intensified on Friday as Undersheriff Rick Sung is indicted in an alleged permits-for-political contributions scheme.
On Nov. 20, Undersheriff Rick Song, second in command to Sheriff Laurie Smith, was indicted in a case that stemmed back to a pay-to-play scheme involving concealed carry permits. In 2018 and 2019 AS Solutions, a Bay Area security firm allegedly paid for Concealed carry permits for their security officers with large contributions to Sheriff Smith’s campaign re-election campaign. KNTV in San Jose has been reporting on grand jury activities in the case.
Concealed carry permits are notoriously hard to acquire in Santa Clara County. The state is a “may issue” state in which the sheriff in each county decides how many permits are issued and who gets those permits. This has left to a wide-ranging degree of difficulty in getting a permit from effectively shall issue in some counties to almost impossible to obtain in others.
Arraignments in the case started coming down in August of this year and so far have included 3 persons employed by AS Solutions, Sheriff’s Captain James Jensen, two attorneys affiliated with the Sheriff, and a local businessperson.
At the heart of the issue is a total of $90,000 in bribes paid to secure permits, $45,000 of which went directly to Sheriff Smith’s 2018 re-election campaign.
Undersheriff Sung has been placed on administrative leave after being formally indicted by a Grand Jury on Friday and District Attorney Jeff Rosen plans to make “an important announcement” on November 23 at 10 a.m. Pacific time.
Smith pleaded the fifth in front of the grand jury, and as of yet, she has not been charged with any crimes.
Santa Clara County is in the San Francisco Bay area and it is at the southern end of the bay. San Jose and Silicon Valley are within its borders.
According to KPIX News, last month, two “former managers” for a Silicon Valley security firm entered guilty pleas in relation to what was described as “a bribery scheme to obtain concealed firearms permits.”
