SC Sheriff Indicted For Taking Bribes To Protect Undocumented Immigrants

383679 04: A shopper pays cash for sales merchandise December 26, 2000 at the Lakeline Mall in Austin, Texas. Stores were hoping that after Christmas shopping could salvage what seems to be a disappointing holiday season. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Newsmakers) (getty)

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina sheriff has been indicted on bribery charges after he allegedly accepted cash in return for agreeing to assist people who were in the country illegally and were being detained.

The 68-year-old Lexington County Sheriff James Metts faces 10 charges of taking bribes. He is also charged with wire fraud and conspiracy.

The indictment detailed several phone calls between Metts and a former Lexington Town councilman, who it said was acting as a go-between for the owner of several Mexican restaurants. Metts accepted an envelope full of cash in exchange for keeping some of the restaurants' employees from ending up in federal databases of immigrants who weren't supposed to be in the U.S., the indictment said.

Metts is the eighth sheriff in the state to face criminal charges or investigations in the past four years.

In office since 1972, the Republican has received a number of awards, including the Order of the Palmetto and the Order of the Silver Crescent, and is up for re-election in 2016. It wasn't immediately known whether he was in custody.

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His lawyer, Sherri Lydon, issued a statement on his behalf. "Sheriff Metts has dedicated his life to law enforcement and serving the citizens of Lexington County. He denies the allegations and looks forward to his day in court," she wrote.

Gov. Nikki Haley suspended Metts about an hour after the indictments were released and appointed Lewis McCarty, who retired in 1999 after nearly 30 years with the Lexington Department, as the acting sheriff.

Metts began his law enforcement career as a dispatcher with the West Columbia Police Department in 1967. In 1972, at the age of 25, Metts became the youngest sheriff ever elected in the nation, according to his online biography, and has served ever since in the heavily Republican county outside Columbia.

He was named South Carolina's sheriff of the year in 1982.

In 1998, he pondered a GOP primary challenge to then-Gov. David Beasley — whom he had helped get elected four years earlier — and even mulled running as an independent before ultimately supporting the incumbent.

The sheriff's ties to video gambling date to that campaign, during which he advocated a statewide referendum on the issue and received contributions from video gambling interests. Metts said he'd return the contributions after disbanding his campaign, and state lawmakers ultimately banned video gambling in 2000.

The U.S. Attorney's Office wasn't available for additional comment Tuesday.

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.