In Santa Clara County, a permit to carry a concealed gun was one of the hardest documents to get in California. The county rarely approved them. So when the man in charge of approving them started trading them for gifts, it took eight years to fully unravel.
On September 21, 2026, Rick Sung pleaded guilty to two felony bribery charges, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office. Sung was not a low-level employee. He was the Undersheriff, second-in-command of the entire Sheriff’s Office, serving directly under former Sheriff Laurie Smith.
The Charges
Sung was accused of using the Sheriff’s Office’s concealed-carry gun permits as leverage to get benefits for himself and his boss, according to Palo Alto Online’s coverage of the plea.
The first count involved a promised donation of 200 iPads from Apple to the Sheriff’s Office. The second count involved a luxury suite and tickets at the SAP Center, home of the San Jose Sharks, reportedly meant for former Sheriff Laurie Smith and her guests.
Sung was originally indicted by a grand jury in 2020 on three charges connected to conduct between 2017 and 2019. Investigators alleged that some of the bribery proceeds were funneled into Smith’s 2018 reelection campaign, according to SFist’s reporting on the case.
A Case That Took Years
This prosecution did not move quickly. Sung already stood trial once. That trial ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked and could not reach a verdict. He was facing a retrial when the guilty plea came down on September 21, 2026. A related bribery charge against a co-defendant, Chadha, was dismissed the same day, per the DA’s announcement.
As part of the negotiated plea, Sung agreed to permanently surrender his California peace officer certification. He will not work as a sworn officer in the state again.
The negotiated disposition includes 400 hours of community service and permanent surrender of his California peace officer certification, according to the DA announcement. This is a resolved plea disposition, not an unresolved sentencing question.
Editorial Interpretation: The Legitimacy Gap
This next part is our read on the record, not a stated legal finding.
Concealed-carry permits exist as a public safety tool. They are supposed to be granted based on need and qualification, decided by people entrusted to apply the rules fairly. As Undersheriff, Sung held exactly that kind of gatekeeping authority.
What the record shows, according to the sourced reporting above, is a public safety license used as a bargaining chip for consumer electronics and hockey tickets. And notably, part of what he’s accused of arranging wasn’t even for himself. Prosecutors say the luxury suite was earmarked for his boss, the sitting Sheriff. That is the legitimacy gap here: a tool meant to protect the public allegedly turned into currency for personal and political favors.
The Bigger Picture
Sung’s guilty plea closes out an eight-year investigation by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office into the Sheriff’s Office. That investigation produced six convictions in total.
It also did not spare the top of the chain. Sheriff Laurie Smith resigned from office in 2022, just ahead of a civil grand jury proceeding that was moving to remove her from her position, according to the sourced reporting above.
Put together: the second-in-command of a county Sheriff’s Office is now a convicted felon who has surrendered his law enforcement certification for life. The Sheriff he served resigned rather than face formal removal. Six convictions came out of one office, tied to one scheme, built around a basic promise — that a gun permit means something.
Go to themoraldecayindex.com and read the sourced record for yourself. Then leave your own verdict in the comments.
Photo: Santa Clara County Government Center in San Jose, by Xnatedawgx, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.