Broward County sheriff to resign, plead guilty

[marinepilot]

Broward sheriff to resign
CURT ANDERSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne, a longtime force in local and state Democratic politics, has agreed to resign and plead guilty to federal tax evasion and mail fraud charges after a lengthy investigation, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

The plea deal came as Jenne faced possible grand jury indictment on more serious money-laundering and other charges after a two-year corruption investigation into his outside business transactions. But the agreement also likely will land Jenne in prison for at least a year under federal sentencing guidelines.

Under the agreement, Jenne is pleading guilty to three counts of tax evasion and one count of mail fraud, according to a senior federal law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because the papers had not been filed Tuesday morning.

Jenne’s attorney, David Bogenschutz, did not immediately return a telephone call. A sheriff’s office spokesman said he could not immediately confirm the resignation and plea agreement.

Jenne, 60, has served as sheriff of Florida’s second-most populous county since his appointment in 1998 by Gov. Lawton Chiles to replace the late Ron Cochran.

The agency has some 6,300 employees and an annual budget of nearly $800 million.

The resignation and guilty plea means that Jenne’s replacement would be chosen by Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican. Jenne also would likely lose his license to practice law and would be barred from seeking public office in the future.

Debated on putting this in the Police Job Openings section, but figured since it's an elected position, it's not like they'd be taking applications.

Too bad that absolute power corrupts so absolutely...

[Nole795]

Good riddance. This is what happens when voters decide to put in a politician instead of a LEO as Sheriff. JENNE never worked a day in law enforcement before winning the Sheriff slot.

The closest he ever came to law enforcement was when he was a prosecutor.

Greed is the downfall to every man. Hopefully the judge will spank him with a stiff sentence.

[Nole795]

Wife of ex-Broward sheriff begs for leniency in sentence

By Paula McMahon | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 14, 2007

At a time in life when most people are thinking about retiring, Caroline Jenne, the wife of former Sheriff Ken Jenne, is looking for a full-time job and worrying about losing her Dania Beach home.

When her husband is sentenced Friday, he is expected to go to federal prison for 18 months to two years: A humiliating fall from jailer to jailed. Caroline Jenne, who mostly avoided the public spotlight that came with being married to the most powerful man in Broward County, wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas begging for leniency.

"I am humbly asking you to have mercy in your sentencing of Ken," she wrote in a Nov. 5 letter that was placed in the court file Tuesday. "The investigation of three years has totally depleted our savings, and I am worried about the future. I just had my 61st birthday and although I have worked part-time for the last 10 years, I am actively looking for a full-time job.

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"I have cut our expenses as far down as I can, and I will do whatever it takes not to lose our home. This is not what I envisioned our lives would be at this point, but I am ready to deal with the challenges before me."

Ken Jenne, who is 60, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud conspiracy and three counts of income tax evasion in September. In the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors, Jenne admitted he accepted more than $151,625 in improper payments, income and other benefits from Sheriff's Office contractors, including money funneled through his secretaries and payments on a Mercedes convertible from his former law firm, Conrad, Scherer & Jenne.

By Tuesday evening, Dimitrouleas had received two dozen letters seeking to influence his sentencing decision. Most of the letters urged leniency for Jenne and just two, so far, came from critics who recommended the maximum penalty.

The letters of support are from current and former neighbors, family friends and political allies who praise Jenne, a Democrat, for everything from his 30-plus years of public service to his mentorship and even his dog-walking skills.In her letter, Caroline Jenne painted a picture of a workaholic husband who gave up a lucrative private law practice and sincerely loved his job in public service. The tears he cried on television when tragedy struck the department "were from the very bottom of his heart," she wrote.

In her letter, Caroline Jenne, noted that she and her husband came from humble beginnings. She went to college on a scholarship to become a teacher. The couple, who will celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary one week from today, have two grown children. Evan, 30, was elected to the state House of Representatives last year, and Sarah, 24, is an anthropologist in Philadelphia. Caroline Jenne wrote that Evan and Sarah are devastated "but stand by their father with total support and love."

The former sheriff specifically admitted in his plea agreement that he had abused the public trust, but Caroline Jenne insisted in her letter that he never did so.

"He has suffered greatly in many ways, but most of all he suffers because of what this has done to his family," Caroline Jenne wrote.

Ken Jenne's salary was $165,250 last year, and he got an agency car and an annual benefits package from the Sheriff's Office last year that was worth another $55,000, public records show. State officials have frozen his pension account until they decide if his criminal record means his pension should be forfeited.

If Jenne goes to prison, he likely would be sent to a so-called camp, a minimum-security prison that has dorm or barracks-style sleeping arrangements, said Mike Truman, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons. Those prisons have a low ratio of staff to inmates and limited or no fencing around the perimeter, he said. Typically eligible inmates are serving less than 10-year terms, he said.

Camp prisoners are on an "inmate accountability" system and if they break the rules, Truman said, they are moved to a higher security prison.

Inmates can be assigned to pick up trash or cut grass. Other jobs include scrubbing bathrooms, buffing and waxing floors, preparing and serving food, painting and carpentry.

Among the other people who wrote the judge recommending compassion for Jenne were: Dr. Arthur Palamara, a Hollywood vascular surgeon who has run unsuccessfully for public office; Bob Bekoff, the owner of Broward's water buses; attorney L. Kenneth Barnett; former attorney Ellis Simring; and Elena Ortiz, the principal of Nativity School in Hollywood who taught Jenne's daughter in second grade.

"Judge, I sincerely hope that you can find it in your heart to take into account the tremendous good that he had done for the community in sentencing Mr. Jenne," Bekoff wrote.

Kimberly Ricci, who identified herself only as a Broward resident, was one of the two writers who recommended the maximum sentence: "Ken Jenne's admitted transgressions are nowhere near the definition of what it is to be a public servant. The only public service Jenne performed was leaving office and he only did so under [threat] of indictment."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...a_tab01_layout

[Nole795]

Ken Jenne welcomed home by neighbors after release

Upon return from prison, neighbors line street with balloons

By Robert Nolin and Rafael Olmeda | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 30, 2008

DANIA BEACH - A street lined with balloons welcomed Ken Jenne, former sheriff turned convicted felon, when he arrived at his Broward County home Monday after being released from a federal lockup.

"The future is before me," he said as he entered his house.

Earlier that morning, Jenne walked out of the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami, where he served the last month of his sentence on federal corruption charges. Originally sentenced to a year and a day, Jenne was released after serving 10 months, the standard reduced sentence for someone imprisoned for a similar term.

Jenne, 61, appeared upbeat when he emerged from confinement, bearing a cardboard box. "I'm just looking forward to being with my family and friends," he said.

Apparently Jenne's neighbors forgave his fall from grace: Each of the approximately 10 mailboxes along the dead-end street leading to his Dania Beach home was festooned with colorful balloons proclaiming "Welcome." The mailbox in front of Jenne's large, two-story brick house sported its own bouquet of balloons.

After nearly nine years as sheriff, and a decades-long career as a political powerbroker, Jenne pleaded guilty last September to mail fraud and tax evasion for taking $151,625 in improper payments and services from Sheriff's Office contractors.

Jenne served the bulk of his sentence at a federal penitentiary in rural western Virginia. There, he worked in the garden growing vegetables. He intends to resume his gardening hobby at home, his son, Evan Jenne has said.

Evan Jenne said he has fielded job offers for his father, but the former sheriff hasn't decided on a professional course of action. Jenne had worked at the law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler in Fort Lauderdale; officials there wouldn't say whether Jenne will return.

"Right now I'm just looking forward to what's going to happen next," Jenne said.

Whether Jenne will receive his state pension, estimated to be $134,500 a year, will be left up to a judge. A hearing on the matter, set for next month, has been delayed.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...,1206357.story