Federal indictment of Frederick County sheriff dropped

FREDERICK, Md. — Charges have been dropped against Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, who was indicted on federal charges in April 2023 for allegedly helping a scheme to obtain illegal machine guns. 

The sheriff will speak Tuesday in a press conference at 3:30 p.m. Along with him will be attorneys Andrea L. Smith and Margaret Teahan.

Jenkins had been accused of unlawfully purchasing machine guns for years. A six-count indictment alleged that between August 2015 and May 2022, Jenkins worked with a local shooting range owner and political supporter of his, Robert Justin Krop, to unlawfully buy machine guns and falsify multiple documents on the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office letterhead requesting machine guns for evaluation and demonstration to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office. 

The indictment alleged the pair knew that there would never be a demonstration of the machine guns to the sheriff's office, and that the guns were actually intended to be rented by Krop's customers. Officials claimed the shooting range received more than $100,000 in profits from the machine gun rentals in 2018 and 2019 alone. 

He took a short leave of absence from his role before reinstating himself in August 2023. Jenkins was elected to his position in 2006 and was most recently reelected in 2022.