‘Off the Damn Edge’: Chuck Wright Lied to Federal Authorities, Sources Say

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On a brisk October morning in 2024, state and federal authorities entered the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) for a meeting then-Sheriff Chuck Wright believed would clear the air over allegations of financial misconduct tied to his county-funded credit card.

What Wright didn’t realize was that long before his taxpayer-subsidized spending made headlines, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) were already taking a hard look at allegations against him.

Or at least, that’s according to sources familiar with Spartanburg County…

First elected after a hotly contested runoff in 2004, Wright spent more than two decades as one of South Carolina’s most recognizable cops — shielded by allies intent on keeping him in power and obeyed by deputies who knew the price of speaking out.

Operating under the guise of a Bible-thumping “constitutional sheriff,” Wright’s name became synonymous with “Jesus Christ” to his cult-like base of supporters, thanks in part to his incessant habit of weaving scripture into nearly every public appearance.

But behind his Jerusalem cross necklace and the front-snapping glasses that rarely left his neck stood a sheriff long rumored to be propped up by a network of gamblers and dope pushers, alleged criminals whose enterprises thrived openly under his watch.

“There’s corruption that runs deep in this county,” said one of several sources still employed by SCSO. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

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OF OXY’S, ROXI’S AND POLICE CHOPPERS…

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While it would be unfair to suggest Wright was affiliated with every dirty deal unearthed by FITSNews in the past year, the expansion of illicit gambling and drug distribution networks throughout Spartanburg County makes it difficult to argue that the ex-sheriff — or members of his staff — were unaware, and harder still to dismiss complicity.

That argument weakens further when waitresses and former addicts describe deputies drinking shoulder-to-shoulder with bar owners tied to major narcotics distribution — only for those same deputies to later handle cases that consistently broke in the underworld’s favor.

And it collapses entirely when deputies themselves attest to picking up thousands in cash from gambling kingpins once investigated by federal authorities — only to funnel the money, at Wright’s alleged direction, into his campaign coffers as early as 2004.

It only gets worse the further back we go, with lawmen recalling Wright placing them in smoke-filled bingo halls stacked with poker machines as far back as the 1980s — when his career as a fresh-faced deputy, carrying either a .357 Magnum or a .38 Special, was just beginning.

This was, of course, during South Carolina’s video poker heyday — long before the colorful machines were outlawed by the S.C. General Assembly on July 1, 2000, a ban that pushed the practice further into the shadows rather than eliminating it as lawmakers say they intended to do.

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One deputy who later exposed elements of the county’s underground gambling scene says he was blackballed from law enforcement as a result — and has since claimed that, back in the early 1990s, Wright told him he had “taken care of” a civilian he allegedly impregnated.

“The only reason I’m talking is because of what Chuck did to my family,” the same deputy said. “Karma’s a bitch.”

More from this exiled lawman in the months ahead…

Meanwhile, snapshot accounts from other residents sketch an even broader picture of Wright’s life before he made sheriff — including a string of questionable encounters reported by civilians in an area later identified as the “110 Zone,” where he worked second shift at the time.

Whatever the truth of those allegations, Wright secured the department’s backing for sheriff in 2004 — a rise fueled less by public support than by the department’s disdain for then-sheriff Bill Coffey’s second-in-command, who died of natural causes earlier this month.

With that support behind him, Wright and his law enforcement brethren pounded the county’s pavement until he secured the GOP nomination — his gateway to decades of unquestioned authority and financial resources the once-insolvent family man could never have imagined.

As for several of the deputies integral to his rise, they now tell FITSNews that helping elect Wright is one of their greatest regrets in life.

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According to like-minded lawmen, Wright wasted no time putting taxpayer money to his advantage — securing a county-funded credit card within his first term and, over the ensuing years, burning through an armada of county-funded trucks for his “official” use.

While the full timeline remains unclear, FITSNews has confirmed that Wright insisted his first county truck, a 2006 F-150 Lariat, and his last, a 2024 F-150 King Ranch, be Gamecock maroon — a tribute to the University of South Carolina, a school he never graduated from.

All the while, Wright customized his vehicles with truck-bed gun safes and an arsenal of weapons. Sources present during various stages of his tenure recalled Wright traveling with an assortment of firearms — including submachine guns chambered in 9x19mm and .45 ACP.

Amid this backdrop, sources point to a far more felonious habit: an apparent pill dependency.

Civilian accounts shared with FITSNews span from a Roxicodone bottle tumbling out of Wright’s golf bag in 2015 to a 2024 crime-scene visit where a witness says they watched him chew four 20-milligram oxycodone tablets belonging to their mother, who had just died.

Inside the sheriff’s office, some deputies say warning signs were visible as early as the 2010s — around the same time Wright was eyeing a “personal” department helicopter listed for sale in Saluda, despite the agency already having two choppers with licensed pilots.

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And while that purchase ultimately fell through, Wright was nonetheless known to commandeer the department’s helicopters for “joyrides” — flights that allegedly carried him, and his passengers, well beyond county lines.

“This motherfucker would fly his helicopter while high as a fucking kite,” alleged a high-ranking deputy. “He took people up just to show off that he could fly… The number of people who are culpable makes my blood boil.”

Wright did, however, appear to draw the line at smoking in the cockpit. Deputies recalled him once landing the department’s Hughes 500 OH-6 chopper off Interstate 85 just to step out for a cigarette during one of his now-disbanded Operation Rolling Thunder dragnets.

“I’ve seen him land, smoke a cigarette, and hop right back in to fly off,” another deputy added, describing a totally separate incident.

As for whether Wright was legally cleared to operate any aircraft, records from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) indicate his third-class medical certificate (.pdf) — valid for only 24 months at his age — was not renewed after expiring around January 2023.

Yet internal SCSO aviation records listing “Pilot: Sheriff Wright” suggest he continued flying well beyond that date — a potentially serious FAA violation that, if substantiated, could carry fines or bar him from exercising any future pilot privileges.

It’s worth emphasizing that most prescription painkillers — particularly opioids like oxycodone — are not generally approved by the FAA for use by pilots.

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CANDY CRUSH AND COUNTY CASH…

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With an affinity for big trucks, loud weapons, high altitudes and whatever “painkillers” he could allegedly convince a deputy to hand over after a doctor’s visit, Wright was also said to have fallen into another addiction never before reported by the media: Candy Crush Saga.

A free app where players advance by matching colorful candies, its chorus of pops and crunches became one of the more absurd trademarks of Wright’s final years in office.

Multiple deputies recalled Wright spending hours parked in “his” swivel chair on the sally port loading dock of SCSO — chain-smoking cigarettes while sinking hundreds of taxpayer dollars into in-app purchases for extra lives and boosters.

“He’d play Candy Crush all the damn time,” one deputy recalled. “Then he’d get on these ultra-religious kicks and start showing us TikToks of preachers.”

County credit card statements obtained by FITSNews indicate that Wright charged around $12,000 in Apple purchases between December 2017 and April 2024 — though it may never be clear how much of that went to Candy Crush versus “legitimate” county expenses.

What is clear, however, is that the fun — and literal games — came to a screeching halt in July 2024, when Wright appears to have violated the S.C. Ethics Reform Act (nepotism) by brazenly deputizing his son, Jared “Andy” Wright, despite clear laws and strong warnings from his own staff.

Wright went through with it anyway, in what appeared to be a bid to salvage his son’s expiring law enforcement certification — at a time when no other agency would purportedly hire him.

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As later revealed, his son was the only part-time deputy in the entire sheriff’s office — a role Wright appears to have created by carving out a full-time deputy slot. Sources say he later admitted the move was meant to give his son a foothold to one day run for sheriff.

“I just don’t know if he’s ready for it yet,” the ex-sheriff purportedly confided at the time.

The demonstrably nepotistic act was first reported by FITSNews, prompting what sources described as a “drug-fueled” Wright to allegedly spiral into paranoia — convinced that “moles” inside his own department were feeding information to FITSNews founding editor Will Folks.

“He couldn’t stand y’all,” one deputy said. “He wasn’t worried about WSPA or FOX or even the Post and Courier. It was always, ‘somebody’s feeding information to FITSNews…’ And he’d say, ‘Will Folks wouldn’t know reporting if it bit him in the ass.’”

Yet despite the fact that Folks hadn’t written about Wright in years, sources say that around the time FITSNews cranked up the heat, Wright poured thousands into new security measures — installing cameras inside the office and even considering a full change of the locks.

But it wasn’t until law enforcement auditor Kyle Joslin filed a formal complaint with the S.C. State Ethics Commission that Wright’s hiring of his son befell a civil investigation.

By the fall of 2024, with his public image starting to wane, Wright appears to have already drawn the interest of federal investigators. Then, The Post and Courier blindsided him with a Freedom of Information Act request for his county credit card statements.

As reporter Christian Boschult subsequently revealed, Wright had racked up more than $53,600 in taxpayer-funded spending — ranging from upscale steakhouses and beachfront suites to Amazon Prime purchases and Sirius XM Radio subscriptions.

Sources say Wright initially tried to block the release of these records, only to be reminded that his card was publicly funded and that disclosure was not optional.

What followed was, in the words of a deputy, “the moment Chuck fucked himself over.”

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THE EGO AND THE ROLODEX…

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In addition to bragging about what his latest truck could do, or the places he allegedly sourced his firearms, Wright wasn’t above flaunting his contacts — once even calling U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, apparently just to prove that he could.

“He called him ‘Lindsey,'” another deputy recalled.

That same swagger endured, propped up by a media landscape seemingly intent on ignoring his conduct. By mid-fall 2024, however, rumors of an investigation had reached a boil inside SCSO — supposedly prompting Wright to grab his county-funded iPhone and call SLED.

While the existence of that call was later confirmed in official records, neither investigators nor the press ever disclosed who Wright allegedly dialed that fleeting day in October 2024.

“His ego actually called Mark Keel,” one source alleged.

SLED chief Mark Keel — a tactically minded, buttoned-up veteran of more than 40 years in law enforcement — was appointed to lead South Carolina’s top investigative agency in 2011, an immensely powerful role he has held with calculation and carefully chosen words, aside from the occasional controversy.

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According to a source familiar with Wright’s own rendition of events, the ex-sheriff claimed he called Keel with at least one member of his command staff present. In his telling, he asked something to the effect of: “Hey Mark, do y’all got an investigation on me?”

That same source said Wright recounted Keel essentially responding like any seasoned cop would — especially to a newly minted suspect who had just skipped rank to call him directly: “Chuck, you’ve seen the media reports. What do you think?”

In Wright’s supposed retelling, he cast himself as unflinching — repeating lines like “send whoever you want” and “I’ve got nothing to hide.”

According to the same source, Wright also claimed Keel replied along the lines of: “We’ll make that happen next week… Oh, and by the way, the FBI will be joining them.”

Whether Wright’s account was accurate — or whether the conversation even happened — what no one disputes is that the following week a SLED agent and an FBI agent walked through the front doors of SCSO. Supposedly carrying at least one binder in hand, the agents made their way into a deputy’s office, where the door was closed behind them.

While the precise details of their alleged conversation with Wright remain unconfirmed, sources say it gave rise to later discussions of a federal statute prohibiting false statements to investigators — suggesting his remarks may not have been entirely truthful.

From Wright’s perspective, however, he appeared convinced he had handled the sit-down with flying colors — telling some he’d been “cleared” of any credit-card-related wrongdoing, while assuring others he had “nothing to hide.”

“Chuck truly thought he was untouchable,” a deputy recalled of Wright’s hours-long sit-down with the FBI and SLED. “He kept saying he’d done a good job, that he hadn’t done anything wrong… but from that day on, it was straight off the damn edge.”

Under 18 U.S. Code § 1001, making false statements to federal investigators is prohibited, regardless of custody or Miranda warnings. Whether Wright’s alleged remarks meet that threshold — or will play any role in potential charges — remains unclear.

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THE SHERIFF AMONG US…

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As the multi-agency criminal probe intensified, Wright maintained full authority over one of South Carolina’s largest counties — cruising around in his Gamecock-maroon King Ranch while confiding to some that he’d bought a burner phone that only his “family” had the number to.

During this same stretch, his physical decline accelerated amid a cascade of revelations: citizen complaints exposing a second relative employed by his department since 2005; evidence that the chaplain’s benevolence fund had been siphoned for thousands of dollars; and, eventually, the pastor overseeing that fund being named as a suspect himself.

Only after all this did Wright take a leave of absence on April Fools’ Day 2025 — which, in his own words, was “due to circumstances beyond my control.” Conspicuously absent from his transfer-of-power letter, however, was any mention of the federal subpoenas landing on his subordinates or the empaneling of a grand jury to examine evidence tied to him and his office.

Six weeks later — after a brief, purported stint in rehab — Wright and his King Ranch reappeared at SCSO in the final hours of a Friday, returning only after a certified letter warned that his $4,000-a-week salary would be cut if his hiatus continued.

The following Monday marked what deputies sarcastically dubbed his “glorious return” — a nod to the adjective Wright himself used after TV reporters approached him in the sheriff’s office parking lot only to ask softball questions. Sporting a red striped necktie, a Hardee’s to-go cup and a display of performative optimism, Wright didn’t even make it through the week before abruptly resigning, this time citing a “recent health diagnosis.”

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High-ranking sources within the office, however, insist that was yet another lie. In reality, they say Wright had returned “on a warpath,” preparing to terminate a slate of employees in a way that, if carried out, could have risked violating federal whistleblower protections.

It was further alleged by multiple deputies that, during that week, Wright — or someone acting at his direction — visited at least one civilian business owner to press them on whether they still supported his administration.

He ultimately resigned on May 23, 2025 — leaving behind what deputies describe as an entrenched network of subordinates alleged to be enmeshed in illicit enterprises, while casting an unfair shadow over colleagues who, by their own account, remain committed to protecting their communities from the very corruption their former sheriff is accused of embodying.

As of this publishing, Wright remains unpunished — and increasingly visible in public — buoyed by a loyal fanbase that still calls him “sheriff.”

As federal proceedings related to Wright’s case continue, he remains represented by attorney Gregory Harris and accompanied by former 7th Circuit solicitor, ex-U.S. congressman and FOX News personality Trey Gowdy.

As for SCSO, it is currently under the interim leadership of Jeffery Stephens, who will soon turn over the badge to Bill Rhyne — who won the primary special election for Wright’s vacated seat in a landslide against a Wright ally quietly backed by Gowdy.

This story may be updated.

UPDATE | Within 24 hours of this article’s publication, Chuck Wright pleaded guilty to three federal offenses. Two alleged co-conspirators — both former employees of the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office — also pleaded guilty to a single charge each in the week that followed.

At the state level, the S.C. State Ethics Commission filed 65 counts against Wright, alleging violations of multiple state ethics laws during his final years in office. Two notices of hearings were subsequently delivered to his attorney, Steve Denton — a former sheriff’s office captain who now practices criminal defense.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.