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Following months of speculation over how much time former Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright would serve in federal prison, assuming he ever does, a federal court filing this week indicates the maximum he’ll likely face at sentencing is 3.5 years.
The underwhelming insight of just how little time the felonious former sheriff is potentially staring down landed Thursday afternoon, when the filing (.pdf) showed both the U.S. government and Wright’s defense team agreed on a federal guideline range ahead of his sentencing.
The filing specifically notes that both parties agreed Wright could face anywhere from 33 to 41 months (or roughly 2 years and 9 months to 3 years and 5 months) behind federal bars.
Negotiating those numbers were Wright’s attorneys, Greg Harris and, most notably, former U.S. Congressman and Fox News personality Trey Gowdy, an uber-connected Donald Trump ally who secured a presidential pardon for an unrelated client in December 2025.
Gowdy’s pedigree, combined with Trump’s affinity for pardoning federally convicted lawmen, leaves many wary that Wright will ever see the inside of a cell.
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For now, though, the former sheriff is still bound to July 7, 2026 – the day U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Cain hands down the actual sentence.
Cain will also decide what Wright owes in restitution. Thursday’s filing clocked that figure at $462,866.06 across two of the three counts he pleaded guilty to in October 2025 — an amount both the government and Wright’s counsel signed off as “appropriate.”
Broken down, $112,980.84 of that restitution is for Count 1, the charge tied to Wright’s admitted theft of thousands of dollars from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) benevolence fund, a tax-exempt cash pool intended to help deputies in times of hardship.
That help didn’t always reach its intended target, as federal filings, paired with Wright’s own admission, later confirmed he was using the fund to “enrich” himself on self-serving luxuries, including but not limited to “controlled substances” in the form of “pills.”
Fear not, though, as the former sheriff checked himself into a Florida rehab clinic in April 2025, around the same time a federal grand jury was empaneled to hear testimony against him.
As for the remainder of the restitution figure detailed in Thursday’s filing, $349,885.22 is tied to Count 2, the charge connected to Wright’s decades-long employment of a blood relative whom at least one federal prosecutor called a “ghost deputy.”
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A former code enforcement officer for SCSO, Lawson “LB” Watson, was later charged at the federal level, alongside Wright, on a singular charge of collecting roughly $200,000 for work federal authorities maintain he never performed over a multiyear period.
A separate filing, also signed Thursday (.pdf), laid out where things stand for Watson, a 73-year-old who still works for his own construction company in West Spartanburg County.
Currently facing a sentencing date of July 9, 2026, Watson’s filing notes that his attorney, Beattie Ashmore, and the U.S. government agreed his federal sentencing guideline range should fall between 10 to 16 months imprisonment.
The filing further noted that both sides agreed to a restitution amount of $349,885.22, mirroring the figure Wright’s own counsel signed off on for the same charge.
Unlike Watson’s matching figure, the last of Thursday’s federal filings (.pdf) included a restitution amount specific to the final co-defendant in the public corruption case: Amos Durham.
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A former SCSO chaplain and practicing Baptist preacher, Durham pleaded guilty alongside Watson and Wright in October 2025 for not only enabling Wright’s abuse of the benevolence fund, but using it to “enrich” himself as well.
Durham’s filing shows his attorney, Frank Epps, and the U.S. government agreed to a guideline range of 6 to 12 months imprisonment, along with restitution of $95,442.39 — slightly less than the $112,980.84 Wright agreed to for the same count.
Despite sentencing ranges and restitution figures now on the books, Thursday’s filings pale in comparison to the torrent of revelations continuing to reach FITSNews regarding Wright’s tenure as one of South Carolina’s most televised, recognized and churchgoing sheriffs.
Behind his hand-crafted image, sources from both sides of the badge are actively unmasking a lawman steeped in decades of sanctimony, whose tenure with SCSO appears increasingly entangled with convicted fraudsters, illegal gamblers, drug distributors and a widening Rolodex of violent criminals.
For now, though, his most quantifiable act of contrition is $28,240 paid to the Spartanburg County Foundation, ahead of whatever restitution order is formally handed down.
If you have any information regarding Wright, his subordinates or the cases they “worked” under his administration, write to Andy Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.
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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.
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