A former South Carolina sheriff is expected to plead guilty Thursday to federal charges that he stole from his force’s benevolence fund and took pain medication that was supposed to be destroyed as part of a pill take-back program.

Former Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright signed a plea agreement last month with federal prosecutors on charges of conspiring to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and conspiring to commit wire fraud and obtaining controlled substances through misrepresentation. He is scheduled to appear Thursday morning at the federal courthouse in Anderson.

Wright will be at least the 12th sheriff in South Carolina to be convicted or plead guilty to on-duty crimes in the past 15 years for misconduct ranging from extorting drug dealers to having inmates work at their homes to hiring a woman and then pressuring her to have sex.

Sheriffs run the law enforcement organizations in the state’s 46 counties. South Carolina law gives the elected officials wide latitude over how their money is spent, what crimes their agencies concentrate on stopping and who gets hired and fired. They also provide little oversight beyond a vote by the people of each county every four years.

Beyond abusing power, there is little in common among the convicted sheriffs. They’ve been in small rural agencies and big, urban ones. There was a scheme to create false police reports to help clients of a friend’s credit repair business. A sheriff took bribes to keep a restaurant owner’s employees from being deported. One covered up an illegal arrest. And another punched a woman in the face and stole her cellphone.

In Wright’s case, the former sheriff plundered the fund meant to help deputies who face financial difficulties, including once saying he needed cash to send an officer to Washington to honor a deputy killed in the line of duty. Instead the money went in his own pocket, federal prosecutors said.

Most of Wright’s crimes happened as he dealt with an addiction to painkillers. In addition to the drugs he took from pill take-back program, Wright also got a blank check from the benevolence fund and used it to pay for oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, writing it out his dealer, according to court records.

Wright also faces more than 60 charges of ethics violations for using his county-issued credit card for personal expenses. In all, there was more than $50,000 in disputed spending, including more than $1,300 he allegedly spent at Apple’s app store and almost $1,600 he paid for Sirius/XM radio, according to court records.

Wright agreed to plead guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obtaining controlled substances through misrepresentation. He is scheduled to appear Thursday morning at the courthouse in Anderson.

The maximum penalty for all three counts combined is nearly 30 years, although Wright will likely receive a much lighter sentence. He also will have to pay at least $440,000 in restitution. A sentencing date has not been set.

ALTOONA, Pa. — The gun found on the suspect in the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO matched shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York City’s police commissioner said Wednesday.

Suspect Luigi Mangione ’s fingerprints also matched a water bottle and a snack bar wrapper that police found near the scene in midtown Manhattan, Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at an unrelated news conference. Police had said earlier that they believed the gunman bought the items at a nearby coffee shop while awaiting his target.

Mangione, 26, was charged with murder in last week’s shooting of Brian Thompson, who led the United States’ largest medical insurance company.

Authorities have said that writings found in Mangione’s possession hinted at a hatred of corporate greed.

They’ve recovered a spiral notebook that Mangione kept, along with a three-page, handwritten letter found when he was arrested Monday in Pennsylvania, a law enforcement official said Wednesday. Police have not disclosed what was in the notebook.

The letter teased the possibility that clues to the attack — “some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it” — could be found in the notebook, the law enforcement official said. The official wasn’t authorized to disclose information about the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The New York Police Department’s top detective, Joseph Kenny, told CBS New York on Tuesday that the motive might have been related to an accident that sent Mangione to an emergency room on July 4, 2023.

A law enforcement bulletin obtained by the AP earlier this week said the letter disdained corporate greed and what Mangione called “parasitic” health insurance companies. The prep school and Ivy League graduate wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world and that major corporations’ profits continue to rise while life expectancy doesn’t, according to the bulletin.

In his first public words since his arrest, Mangione shouted about an “insult to the intelligence of the American people” on his way into court Tuesday. Mangione remained jailed without bail Wednesday in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with gun and forgery offenses.

Manhattan prosecutors were working to bring him to New York. At a brief hearing Tuesday in Pennsylvania, defense lawyer Thomas Dickey said Mangione will not waive extradition and instead wants a hearing on the issue.

“You can’t rush to judgment in this case or any case,” Dickey said afterward. “He’s presumed innocent. Let’s not forget that.”

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City, after a McDonald’s customer recognized him and notified an employee, authorities said.

New York police officials have said Mangione was carrying the gun and the same fake ID the suspected shooter had used to check into a New York hostel, along with a passport and other fraudulent IDs.

Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4 as he walked alone to a Manhattan hotel for an investor conference. From surveillance video, New York investigators determined the shooter quickly fled the city, likely by bus.

His movements afterward are unclear, but authorities believe he took steps to stay off the radar. Prosecutors said at his Pennsylvania hearing this week that when arrested, he had bags for his cellphone and laptop that prevent such devices from transmitting signals that authorities can use to track them.

Mangione, a grandson of a well-known Maryland real estate developer and philanthropist, had a graduate degree in computer science and worked for a time at a car-buying website. During the first half of 2022, he bunked at a co-living space in Hawaii, where those who knew him said he suffered from severe and sometimes debilitating back pain.

His relatives have said in a statement that they are was “shocked and devastated” at his arrest.

___

Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed.