A Santa Clara Undersheriff Just Pleaded Guilty in the Pay-to-Play CCW Scheme

Cam Edwards at Bearing Arms dated the story September 21, 2026. Former Undersheriff Rick Sung entered guilty pleas to two felony bribery-solicitation counts in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Judge Hanley Chew took them. Under the agreement Sung surrenders his state law-enforcement license, performs 400 hours of community service, and serves two years of probation. There is no jail term in the deal. After he finishes probation he may petition to reduce the felonies to misdemeanors and then seek expungement. Deputy District Attorney John Chase moved to dismiss a connected charge against defendant Harpreet Chadha. Sung’s remarks on the record, as Bearing Arms printed them, were “I do” and “Guilty.”

The scheme is the old Laurie Smith CCW desk: before Bruen forced California from may-issue to shall-issue, the sheriff’s office was accused of parking ordinary applications and moving the rare permit for people who wrote checks to the department and to a campaign supporting Smith’s reelection. Smith was previously convicted of bribery-related charges in a civil trial. A 2020 criminal indictment of a captain and three Smith supporters is the public start of the same file. Sung’s lawyers, Naomi Chung and Tamara Crepet, called the case “politically motivated” in a written statement after the hearing and noted that only the sheriff, not the undersheriff, had legal authority to issue the permits. A plea is not an acquittal.

Shall-issue did not make the card cheap. Bearing Arms notes the California Rifle & Pistol Association and Second Amendment Foundation suit against the county: nearly $2,000 to apply, close to $1,000 in county fees before training, a psych evaluation, and fingerprints. Sung is off the roster. The price of the right in Santa Clara is still the story the plea did not close.