Judge won’t nix charges against suspended sheriff

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A federal judge has denied a motion to dismiss the charges against South Carolina’s longest-serving sheriff.

U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten denied a request Tuesday by lawyers for suspended Lexington County Sheriff James Metts. His attorneys had wanted two parts of the 10-count federal indictment against their client dropped.

Metts is slated to go on trial next month in Columbia. He is accused of taking bribes from a restaurant owner in exchange for releasing some of his employees who had been detained for being in the country illegally.

Metts has been suspended from the office he has held since 1972. He is the eighth sheriff in South Carolina to be charged or investigated in the last four years.