Heidi Harris critiques former Sheriff Chuck Wright's conviction and political ego

What this episode covers

Heidi Harris: Always a privilege sitting in for Charlie James as he takes a couple of well-deserved days off. Speaking of seniors and drugs, let's talk about the sheriff. Former Spartanburg Sheriff Chuck Wright, who's now been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison. I'm not saying he was doing that kind of stuff, but he had a little bit of a drug problem that caused him to take money that wasn't his, and do some other things. But he's pled guilty to it, by the way. So he's going to prison for 41 months. That puts him out of prison somewhere around 65. Then they're going to keep an eye on him for a couple of years. He's supposed to pay restitution—he's at 61—supposed to pay restitution of $462,000. How's that going to happen? How's that going to happen? I mean, you know, the thing about this Chuck Wright story that's so sad to me is that you—you—the public trust. And I don't—let me just back up. I don't put my trust in politicians, ever. I mean, I think some of them are good, some of them are not so good. I don't put my trust like, "The nation is safe," "Society is safe," my—my—"My city is safe because so-and-so's in office." No, no, no, no, no. I don't do that for a second. But when somebody is placed into a position of public trust—in other words, you are responsible for a budget, you are responsible for crime, you are responsible for the finances that go into fighting crime, you're responsible for all of those things—and you're doing it for two decades, we expect you to be aboveboard. Period. And you're doing this stuff behind the scenes because you have a drug problem. Well, can I just say for a sec—there are people who have drug problems who don't do this. They don't steal from other people. Now, I know it's hard if you have a drug problem, it's hard to get drugs, you know, legally—obviously you're not getting them legally, probably, and some—you know, probably maybe you're, you know, burglarizing, I don't know. But the point is, you know, this guy was—he siphoned, they're saying, $89,000 from the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office benevolence fund. It's supposed to help officers in need. Spent it on personal luxuries, including these pills. Handed over a thousand-dollar check from, uh, his—the fund to pay a local street-level pill distributor, also. And I don't care, you know, I hope he's off the drugs now. I hope so. But, you know, anyway. It's sad. It's just sad when ever somebody who is entrusted with the public's money and the public's safety does something so—so terrible. Because how many times do you lie? When you're involved in something like that, you're lying all the time. And then you're lying again to cover up, and then you're lying about that, and you're lying and you're lying and you're lying and you're lying because you're trying to cover up what you're doing. Or you're making decisions that are not in the best interest of the public because you're half out of it on pills. Now, according—I've seen people who are addicted who don't act like they're addicted, but it sounds like he would come in according to some people, not me, come to work high as a kite, they said. And when you're doing that and you're driving a vehicle, and you're making decisions, I mean, heck, you should run for Congress. It's sad. You know, I—I know that people are people, and politicians are just human beings who have their failings and all of that. They're sinners and they're not perfect, I get it. Some of them are in it for the right reasons, most of them are not. I understand all of that. But I'm always hopeful because there are people who really have integrity who do run for office. There really are some. Now, usually they don't win. You know, one of the things that's so interesting to me—I just read a book about sociopaths not too long ago, it was written by a girl, I think the title of the book, I believe, is Sociopath. And it was so interesting because she herself is a sociopath. Married, has children, works, all that ...

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