Scheduled on the court calendar five months ago, the federal trial of former Culpeper Sheriff Scott Jenkins was delayed Tuesday after Jenkins reportedly "developed a medical condition," according to the presiding judge.
Judge Robert Ballou, sitting in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Virginia in downtown Charlottesville on Monday, granted Jenkins a one-day postponement. Jenkins never appeared in court.
Coincidentally, outside the courtroom, paramedics were attending to a prospective juror, also suffering from "a medical condition," according to court records. A stretcher was wheeled into the hallway outside the courtroom as Ballou announced the postponement.
Court officials were informed of Jenkins’ condition by his brother, Mike Jenkins, a former Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office deputy, who was present in the courtroom Wednesday alone.
Ballou apologized for the delay to more than four dozen people called for prospective jury duty and thanked them for their time. He told them to report at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday for jury selection.
U.S. prosecutors and the defense declined to comment on the matter to the Culpeper Star-Exponent.
Representing Jenkins were Washington-based attorneys Philip Andonian and Joseph Caleb of Caleb Andonian, which bills itself as “a boutique ligation firm.” The partners specialize in, among other things, cases of white-collar offenses such as mail and wire fraud and public corruption.
On the other side of the well were U.S. attorneys Celia Choy, Lina Peng and Melanie Smith. The trio moved to have Tuesday excluded from the speedy trial timeline. Their motion was granted.
Jenkins is facing 12 charges of bribery and fraud in an alleged badges-for-bribes scheme in which federal prosecutors say the ex-sheriff took at least $70,000 from various businessmen — and undercover FBI agents — and then swore them in as auxiliary deputies.
The prosecution claims Jenkins for years "engaged in a corrupt scheme to enrich himself and to fund his reelection campaign through bribery."
Jenkins has pleaded not guilty.
A Gofundme page, “Help Sheriff Scott Jenkins Fight the DOJ,” has been established to raise funds for Jenkins’ legal costs. Since it was created, the page has been edited to suggest Jenkins is being targeted as some sort of political witch hunt.
“Sheriff Scott Jenkins is under attack from the Biden DOJ and needs your help,” reads the page. “Scott gained national notoriety when he took on Governor Northam and Virginia Democrats over the Second Amendment in the fall of 2019 and early 2020, stopping a Virginia assault-weapons ban by promising to swear in thousands of citizens as volunteer deputy sheriffs available for callup should such a ban be put in place.”
Jenkins actually swore in a few dozen volunteer auxiliaries, who were not properly trained, a Star-Exponent investigation found. Proper records were also not kept by his agency on the reserve force granted the same powers as sworn deputies. Many were given guns and other sheriff’s office equipment in exchange for envelopes of cash to Jenkins, according to Jenkins’ indictment.
Federal prosecutors filed a motion Oct. 21 seeking to keep the case from becoming any more political than it already is — "to exclude certain improper evidence and argument." The motion seeks to prohibit defense arguments “about selective, vindictive, or otherwise improper prosecution, including any claims that Department of Justice or law-enforcement personnel brought this case because of political motivations or any other improper considerations."
The prosecution is also seeking to block evidence or argument regarding the former sheriff’s prior lawful conduct or lack of criminal history; arguments that covert law-enforcement techniques such as the use of undercover agents, wiretaps or consensual recordings are improper; testimony regarding potential punishment or other collateral consequences of Jenkins’ prosecution, such as the defendant’s loss of the 2023 election.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com