H1 : Heidi Harris discusses former Sheriff Chuck Wright’s 41-month federal prison sentence, fraud, and $462k restitution.

What this episode covers

Here is the full transcript combining the broadcast segments from the July 7, 2026, episode of The Heidi Harris Show sitting in for The Charlie James Show: Segment 1Heidi Harris: Good afternoon, always a privilege sitting in for Charlie James as he enjoys a couple of well-deserved days off over the holiday. Lots of news to talk about for sure. Talk a little bit about Chuck Wright. Sentenced to 41 months now. That’s interesting. 41 months, well, that was the max they could give him apparently under the agreement. You know, what's sad about it is that you're sheriff for 20 years, and I know a lot of people want to say, "Oh well, you know, he was a sheriff for a long time, and that should count for something, you know, his service to the community." And a lot of people liked him and voted for him again and again and again. I get all that. But you do have a responsibility to the public, your responsibility to the people who voted you in. And for someone to say, "Well, it was 20 years of great service to the community," well, not really. How many years was he doing things that weren't good for the community? I know he did a lot of great things for many, many years, but, you know, there were a lot of things, who knows how many years there were problems going on. Anyway, I did not know that Trey Gowdy was his attorney. I didn't realize that until today. And he's entitled to a defense, everybody is. And there were people who knew what he was up to and didn't want to say anything because they were afraid of being fired, which is always true. And sighs you know, some of the things that he has said—and by the way, he's pled guilty to the charges—but some of the things he's said in his defense, or the defense attorneys have said for him, they talk a little bit about the fact that there was PTSD. And there is a lot of PTSD among members of the—whether you're in the military, and a lot of other—obviously, occupations, but certainly the military and certainly the police department. They see things that you and I don't ever want to see, and they can never get them out of their mind. Just talking to a friend the other day about something involving MS-13 when he was a detective chasing them around, and the things that he had to see that he will never unsee. And there is a lot of addiction, alcoholism, things like that among folks in that occupation because they're trying to drown what they've seen. It's not normal. You know, it's easy for us to stand there, and I'm not defending anything he did, but I'm saying it's easy for us to stand there and judge and say, "Oh, how could you become addicted to pills? How could you become addicted to alcohol? How could you do this? How could you do that?" Well, the fact is we haven't seen what they've seen. And I know there are people who've seen what they've seen and not gotten addicted, I know that too. I understand that, obviously. But it is very, very hard, and it's very prevalent. And the problem is, and it's just like people who are, you know, in the military, if you start to have a problem with whatever it might be, alcohol, drugs, what do you do? Tell your higher-ups you have a problem, you need to go into rehab? There are a lot of people afraid they're going to lose their—get kicked out of the military or they're afraid they're going to lose their gun rights, or I mean, there are a lot of ramifications to that. People don't like to admit they're hurting.I heard about a friend not too long ago who'd been a cop for 25 years and served four tours—four tours?—four tours in Iraq, went into rehab for alcohol. I've known this guy since he was 22 years old. And he went into rehab. Happily married, kids and all that stuff, but you're just—it becomes a problem for some people. And I'm not defending anything that went on with the sheriff. By the way, let me know what you think about it. 800-905-0989. 800-905-0989. Sheriff for 20 years, y'all know who he is, Chuck Wright. Sentenced to federal priso ...

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