Ex-Undersheriff Pleads Guilty: Sold Gun Permits for iPads, Sharks Tickets

Rick Sung, once the second-in-command at the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, pleaded guilty Monday to two felony bribery charges after a previous trial ended in a deadlocked jury [S1]. He admitted trading concealed-carry weapons permits for Apple iPads and San Jose Sharks tickets [S2].

PROOF

The grand jury indicted Sung in 2020, accusing him of holding up the distribution of concealed carry licenses until applicants provided something of value [S2]. He was initially indicted on three charges for incidents dating between 2017 and 2019, and investigators found some of the bribery money was sent to Smith's 2018 reelection campaign [S2]. One count concerned the promise of 200 iPads from Apple to the Sheriff's Office in exchange for expediting concealed-carry permits for the company's executive security team [S1]. Sung and Jensen withheld four gun licenses from Apple employees until Apple's Chief Security Officer, Thomas Moyer, donated 200 iPads worth almost $70,000 [S2]. That donation was canceled at the last minute after Sung and Moyer learned the district attorney's office had issued a search warrant regarding the sheriff's office's concealed carry license records [S2]. The second count concerned businessman Harpreet Chadha, whose luxury suite at the SAP Center was allegedly offered to the sheriff's office while his CCW permit renewal was being held up [S1]; Chadha offered $6,000 worth of box seat tickets to a Sharks game on Valentine's Day 2019 to be donated to Smith and her guests [S2].

Sung's first trial in 2025 ended with jurors acquitting Apple security executive Thomas Moyer and former Sheriff's Captain James Jensen, while they deadlocked on the charges against Sung [S1]. Facing a retrial, he pleaded guilty Monday, and a connected bribery charge against Chadha was dismissed the same day [S1]. Under the deal, Sung must permanently surrender his California peace officer certification and complete 400 hours of community service [S1]. The two outlets covering the plea do not agree on the probation term: one reported Sung will serve two years of probation [S1], the other reported six months, after which the court will set aside the plea and dismiss both cases [S2].

Federal law defines bribery of a public official as anything of value offered "with intent to influence any official act" [S4]. Sung was charged under California state law, not this federal statute, but his own attorneys argued the same underlying point in his defense: that concealed-weapons permits "under California law only the Sheriff, not the Undersheriff, has the authority to issue" [S2] - meaning, in their telling, Sung had no official act to sell. He pleaded guilty regardless.

PUBLIC OPINION

District Attorney Jeff Rosen said the office "enforces the law without fear or favor" [S2] and that "law enforcement in Santa Clara County must be equally determined to be incorruptible as it is determined to protect our community" [S1]. A spokesperson for the DA's Office said the plea "ends an eight-year-long series of DA-initiated criminal corruption cases that led to six convictions, including former Sheriff's Captain James Jensen, and eventually forced Smith to resign in 2022, just before a civil grand jury removed her from office" [S3].

BULLSHIT DEFENSE

Sung's attorneys, Naomi Chung and Tamara Crepet, said "we have always believed this prosecution was politically motivated and unfair" [S2], and argued "this case was never about Mr. Sung lining his own pockets. It concerned concealed-weapons permits, which under California law only the Sheriff, not the Undersheriff, has the authority to issue" [S2]. They also said that for Sung, "the retrial meant more years of legal fees, more public scrutiny, and more strain on his wife and children. When he was offered a resolution that guaranteed no custody and ended in dismissal, he took it" [S2].

None of that explains the guilty plea. A man who genuinely had no authority to trade permits for iPads and Sharks tickets does not need to plead guilty to two felony bribery counts and hand over his peace officer certification for good [S1]. He took the deal because the alternative was worse.

Sung retired from the Sheriff's Office in 2022 following Smith's resignation [S1]. He walks away from an eight-year investigation with a felony record, no badge, and a permanent surrender of his certification [S1]. That's the whole story.