SC highway gets renamed. The reason is related to a series of crimes.
The name of a disgraced South Carolina sheriff will be removed from a portion of a highway, following a unanimous vote by a panel of the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
The name of former and disgraced Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright will be stripped from a portion of U.S. 29 from I-85 to the city limits of Greer, following a unanimous vote by the SCDOT commission Thursday. The highway was initially named after Wright in 2018.
The vote was conducted in under a minute and didn’t include any comments from the public.
In September, Wright, who was sheriff of Spartanburg County from 2004 to 2025, pled guilty in federal court to engaging in a conspiracy to steal federal funds, conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation.
Federal prosecutors said Wright obtained 147 pain pills of oxycodone and hydrocodone by misrepresenting that he was collecting the pills for a ‘’take back” narcotics disposal program in 2023. Instead, he “was obtaining the controlled substance for his own personal use.”
For four years, from 2021 through February 2025, Wright also paid a friend roughly $200,000 for nonexistent work.
Wright, who awaits sentencing, faces up to 20 years in prison.
