Former Lexington sheriff to learn his fate Monday

The final chapter in the downfall of former Lexington County Sheriff James Metts will take place Monday in federal court.

At issue is whether he will be sent to prison and, if so, for how long.

Sentencing is up to U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten, a former state and federal prosecutor, who will weigh an impassioned plea made last week in a 52-page filing that the judge not sentence Metts to prison but instead give him home confinement and community service.

Metts’ lawyers, Sherri Lydon and Scott Schools, also said in their filing that government attorneys support their no-prison request.

U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles had no comment Friday on that assertion, adding he likely will comment after Metts is sentenced.

Prosecutors said in court in December, when Metts pleaded guilty before Wooten, that they agreed Metts should not be imprisoned. There have been no filings in the public record since that time indicating that prosecutors might have changed their position.

Still, Wooten rejected a no-prison plea deal in December, indicating Metts should at least get some prison time, stressing that the former sheriff violated public trust.

Before being indicted in June, Metts, 68, was one of the state’s most prominent law officers, having served some 42 years in office. He was a founder of what is now a powerful law enforcement lobby, the S.C. Sheriff’s Association.

Metts pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to keep two immigrants from being processed in 2011 at the county jail he formerly supervised. Prosecutors said a friend gave a middleman money to give to Metts to release the pair so they could work in the friend’s restaurant. Metts’ plea came after nine other charges were dropped, including taking bribes from a restaurant owner who was a political supporter who employed the immigrants.

Medical reasons and Metts’ long history of public service and civic outreach have been cited as considerations for no prison time. Metts requires 20 daily medications that would be difficult to administer in prison, according to recent court filings. His medical problems include diabetes, neuropathy, coronary artery disease, Bell’s Palsy, skin cancer, depression and anxiety.

It is unclear whether Wooten will be moved by Metts’ lawyers’ plea for mercy.

Only a month ago, Wooten sentenced Michael Johnson, former sheriff of Williamsburg County, to 21/2 years in prison for official misconduct. Like Metts, Johnson has health problems.

At Johnson’s sentencing hearing in late March, Wooten stressed Johnson committed a serious betrayal of public trust by taking part in an illegal scheme while serving as an elected law enforcement official. At that hearing, Wooten noted that Johnson compromised official police records and said it was “very serious to compromise the law enforcement process.”

“The heart of the (law enforcement) process is reliability of documents,” Wooten told the court then.

In what is publicly known about Metts’s case, Metts too participated in a scheme that involved getting illegal Mexicans out of jail.

Since Metts was not tried, a full statement of the facts in his case has not been made public. However, Wooten has before him a pre-sentence report by the federal probation office. Such reports typically contain much detail about the facts of the crime to which a person is pleading guilty. Usually, only the judge and lawyers on both sides of the case view those reports.

Friends hope to avoid what could be up to 16 months in prison for Metts if federal sentencing guidelines are followed.

He is “devastated” by ending his career as sheriff in disgrace, according to a request for leniency filed by Metts’ lawyers.

His intervention in handling of the immigrants was an “isolated mistake,” their request said.

Metts is willing to undertake “significant” community service, his lawyers said. No amount is suggested.

With his political career in ruins, Metts “plans to spend the rest of his life putting his family first,” after his job often forced him to neglect wife, Carol, three daughters and 10 grandchildren, the request for mercy says.

Friends sent more than 100 letters outlining what they consider Metts’ devotion to improving lives that included helping many people whom his deputies put in jail, the request added.

“From picking up litter to building children’s shelters, no task was too insignificant or too great,” it said.

Metts is the eighth South Carolina sheriff to be charged or investigated while in office since 2010.

So far, seven pleaded guilty or were convicted while another died while under investigation. Three of those sheriffs were sentenced to prison. A ninth sheriff is facing drunken driving and hit-and-run charges.

Meanwhile, charges are pending in state court against restaurant owner Greg Leon and former Lexington Town Councilman Danny Frazier for allegedly delivering bribes to Metts.

Leon, owner of Mexican restaurants, passed along money to Frazier to deliver to the former sheriff, according to charges pending.

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 11:16 AM with the headline "Former Lexington sheriff to learn his fate Monday."